Iron Man dropped lower through the avenue with the Leviathan behind him, and even in the middle of everything Adam could tell the timing had changed.
Banner was here.
Steve looked toward Bruce and said, "Dr. Banner, now might be a good time for you to get angry."
Bruce looked back at him, calm in a way that made no sense with a Leviathan rushing at them. Then he said, "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."
Adam knew what came next.
'Come on, come on, come on. Hurry up,' Adam thought.
He was not even looking at Banner alone anymore. His eyes kept dropping to the Omnitrix on his wrist every second, waiting for the cooldown to end before the moment passed him by.
Then Hulk happened.
Bruce's body swelled in an instant. The street shook under the force of it, and a second later Hulk stepped in and drove one punch straight into the Leviathan's head. The giant thing stopped so suddenly that its whole body folded around the hit. The front dipped, the upper section rose, and the long armored body began to slide sideways through the street.
Then Tony hit it.
A missile slammed into the back half and blew part of the creature apart. Metal, armor, and broken flesh rained down with the wreckage.
Adam did not waste another second.
The red glow on the Omnitrix died. Green flashed over the dial.
"Yes," Adam muttered.
He slammed his palm onto it immediately.
Power rushed back into him. His frame thickened, his muscles turned dense again, and his height rose just enough to make the whole world feel slightly smaller around him. Diamond-like patterns spread over his skin.
Natasha saw it first.
Her head turned sharply toward him just as the first chunk of falling debris came down.
Adam felt the crystal around him more clearly than before. He threw one hand up and pushed hard.
A thick dome of crystal surged upward beside the wrecked car where Steve, Natasha, and Clint were positioned. It rose fast enough to cover them from above just as debris crashed onto it from the shattered Leviathan.
Steve lifted his shield anyway.
The impact hammered the dome and sent cracks racing across the outer layer, but it held.
The moment the debris storm passed, the Chitauri screamed.
The sound rolled across the street and farther beyond it. More of them were descending. More were gathering. More were coming through the portal.
Adam looked up at them and almost laughed from the rush in his chest.
'Oh, this is bad,' Adam thought. Then another thought hit right behind it. 'No, this is perfect.'
He was standing there in the Battle of New York with the original Avengers around him.
That realization nearly made him stupid again.
'I actually want to fight them head-on too,' Adam thought. 'If this turns into hand-to-hand combat, I am not backing down.'
Then he looked around him once more.
Tony came down from the air. Thor was already there with Mjolnir in hand. Hulk stood over the broken Leviathan. Steve was back on his feet. Natasha had one gun raised. Clint had turned toward the next threat.
Adam's chest tightened with excitement.
'This is it,' Adam thought. 'This is the scene.'
Tony looked toward Steve and told him to call it.
Steve did.
"Alright, listen up," he said.
His voice cut through the noise like it belonged there. Even Adam straightened up.
Until the portal could be closed, Steve wanted containment. He sent Clint to a rooftop so he could watch the field and call out movement. He told Tony to handle the perimeter and keep anything from pushing too far out into the city. He told Thor to bottleneck the portal and slow the wave coming through it.
Then Steve looked at Hulk.
"Hulk, smash."
That got exactly the reaction it should have.
Hulk grinned and launched himself away like a living missile.
Adam almost said something out loud just because he had heard that line in person, but Steve was already turning toward Natasha.
He kept her with him on the ground.
Then his eyes shifted to Adam.
That part hit differently.
Adam knew why Steve had paused.
The last time he had asked, Adam had said he could not help.
Steve looked at him once, direct and practical as ever. "Can you help this time?"
Adam answered without hesitation.
"Yes. Absolutely."
Steve gave one short nod. "Good. Then save as many people as you can. Can you make something like what you made for us?"
Adam glanced once at the crystal dome still covering the car and then back at the street.
"Yeah," he said. "I can."
"Then do it," Steve said. "We'll hold here."
That was enough for Adam.
He took off at once.
The grin on his face came back so fast it almost hurt.
'Finally,' Adam thought. 'Finally. I am actually doing this with the Avengers.'
For two steps, that was all he could think about.
Then he forced himself back under control.
'Focus first,' Adam thought. 'Fanboy later.'
This time the crystal did not feel distant. It was everywhere. In the broken road, in the glass scattered over the street, in the dust hanging in the air, and in the debris still rolling down from damaged buildings.
Adam raised his hand and tried to guide it toward the open stretch ahead.
People were still trying to run through falling debris. Some were crouched behind wrecked cars. Others had frozen near the sidewalk because there was nowhere clean to move.
Adam looked at the road and made the simplest decision he could.
If the street was too dangerous to cross in the open, then he would change the street.
Crystal walls burst upward from both sides of the avenue.
They were thick, bulky, and still rough at first, running forward for several meters while people near the sidewalks stopped and stared. Adam kept pushing until the walls climbed higher, then bent inward.
Four meters.
Then the two sides curved toward each other and joined.
A crystal dome locked into place over part of the road.
People nearby froze for a second, too shocked to move. Then debris hit the top.
The dome held, but cracks spread over the outer surface.
Adam felt the weakness immediately and reinforced it, forcing more crystal into the damaged layer, making it wider, thicker, and harder.
The pressure of doing that hit him at once.
"Damn," Adam muttered. "That takes a lot out of me."
Still, it worked.
He ran toward the nearest cluster of civilians and pointed at the new shelter.
"Inside," he shouted. "Stay under that and keep moving."
They started running.
Adam moved with them and quickly sealed one side with a thick rear wall so anything coming from behind would not have a straight path in. He left the forward side open for people to enter and pass through.
For one second he thought he had handled it well.
Then he looked back and saw two Chitauri charging in from the road he had not closed off yet.
'Oh, right,' Adam thought. 'Them.'
The aliens raised their weapons.
Adam thrust one hand toward the street and forced himself to picture exactly what he wanted.
A sharp crystal spike erupted from the ground in front of them.
Then another.
Then a third.
The largest one drove up hard enough to punch through both Chitauri at the chest and leave them hanging above the road.
That was enough.
The civilians nearest the shelter let out the kind of breath people only made after thinking they were about to die. More of them ran inside from the street while Adam waved them forward.
"Come on!" he shouted. "Inside, now!"
Then he ran to the other end of the dome-covered stretch of road, saw more people trying to come through the smoke from ahead, and moved in front of them.
"Stay behind me," Adam said.