The beam vanished from Adam's arms.
He kept them crossed for a second as he stared at the line it had burned across the land. The Helicarrier had broken under the attack. The damage on the ground continued far beyond it.
Adam's eyes widened when he saw the full damage.
'What the fuck? What just happened?' Adam thought.
He had expected the beam to damage the ship. At most, he had expected it to tear through the carrier and lose its force after that. He had not expected it to keep going until it struck the ground.
'Way Big's beam is this powerful?' Adam thought.
He knew the alien was powerful from Ben 10. Watching an attack on a screen had not prepared him for how it felt to release that power himself. He had stopped the beam almost as soon as it appeared, yet that short attack had been enough to tear through the ship. Even the small amount he had fired had gone far beyond what he wanted.
He had aimed at the last carrier. When the beam passed through it, he stopped firing. The attack still reached the land before it vanished. One short use had caused all of this in front of him.
Adam turned his head toward the base.
The fighting had stopped.
Agents who had been watching monitors were still facing the screens. The people who had been running through the base had stopped where they were. No one seemed able to look away from Adam.
Inside the council room, Fury stood with his attention fixed on the window. Natasha had also stopped moving. Pierce remained near the table and stared outside without speaking.
Adam looked down at his giant hands.
He struck the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
Green light moved over his body.
His height began to fall, bringing him down from above the base as Way Big's power pulled back. Before he returned fully to his normal body, the Omnitrix changed him again. His frame became thinner as the cold feeling of Big Chill spread through him.
Wings formed behind Adam. He lifted into the air and flew toward Steve and Sam.
Steve and Sam watched him land. Sam stayed where he was and said nothing.
Steve looked at Adam before speaking.
Adam could see that the beam had changed the way Steve looked at him. A question had been troubling Steve for some time.
Steve finally looked him in the eyes.
"Tell me the truth," Steve said. "Are you really a threat to this Earth?"
Adam stared at him.
He had expected Steve to ask about the beam. He had not expected him to ask that question so directly.
Then Adam understood what was behind it.
Steve believed Adam came from another planet, and he had watched Adam change his body many times before. This time Adam had become larger than the base and fired through a Helicarrier into the land beyond it.
Steve was not only afraid of Adam. He was thinking about the people from the planet Adam claimed to have come from. If more people like him arrived, Earth might have no way to stop them.
The fear had been in Steve's mind since learning that Adam claimed to be an alien. Until now, Adam had always protected people when they fought together, so Steve had kept the question to himself. The beam had finally forced him to ask.
Adam shook his head.
"No," he said. "It is not like that. I think of this place as my home."
Steve watched his face after the answer.
Adam did not look away. That part was true. He lived here now, and the people he cared about were here too.
Some of the pressure left Steve's face, but another question still troubled him.
"Do all the people on your planet have powers like yours?" Steve asked. "Can they come to Earth the way you did?"
Adam stayed silent for a few seconds.
People from Adam's world did not have Omnitrix powers, so he could answer the first question without lying. Steve's second question was harder.
Adam remembered a girl from the Marvel comics he had read. She came from a world where Marvel was fiction. After entering the Marvel Universe, she gained powers of her own.
Adam had also crossed into this world without knowing how, so telling Steve that nobody else could come here would be a lie. The comic had already shown him that someone from a normal Earth could cross into Marvel. He did not know what had brought him here, so he could not promise it would never happen again.
"No," Adam said. "People there do not have abilities like mine. As for anyone else coming here, I cannot say."
Steve nodded, and the fear in his face eased.
On another side of the damaged base, broken parts of a carrier fell toward the water. Rumlow was caught under the rubble as it came down. The wreckage carried him over the edge and into the water below.
Steve turned toward the destruction.
His eyes searched the broken area. Adam knew who he was thinking about.
'Bucky has to be here.' Steve thought.
Steve looked back at Adam.
"Go help Natasha," he said. "I have something to do."
Sam opened his wings and flew toward Maria's position. Steve moved toward the place where the wreckage had fallen.
Adam lifted into the air and headed toward Fury. The council room was visible through the damaged side of the building. Adam flew through the broken wall and entered the room.
Pierce saw him first.
He remained quiet as Adam landed inside. Natasha looked toward Adam while Fury kept watching him.
"So you finally got your chance to be a hero," Natasha said.
Adam smiled at her words. Then he turned toward Pierce.
"Man, you caused me a lot of trouble," Adam said. "I wanted to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. the moment I understood what it was, but my hands were tied because of my friends."