Black Widow tossed Ryan a device he could wear in his ear and told him it was an Avengers communicator.
It let members of the Avengers talk to one another wirelessly.
As Black Widow stepped onto the snow, she used it to contact the Avengers and tell them Ryan had returned.
Ryan fitted the communicator into his ear. The moment he switched it on, he heard the Avengers' voices: "Welcome back."
Iron Man then briefed him on their objective.
Their target lay beyond the stretch of snow ahead. Ryan looked up the slope, following the white expanse with his eyes.
The slope was steep, with a Castle-like building perched at the top.
A dark blue energy shield surrounded it. Iron Man said he would find a way through the shield, and then they could storm the Castle together.
Inside the Castle, someone had taken Loki's Scepter. The Avengers needed to get it back.
"Got it." Ryan understood the situation now.
Every member of the Avengers team could take on ten enemies at once. Though the guards outside the Castle had guns and artillery, their ranks were already falling apart.
Black Widow and Hawkeye were still having a harder time of it, though.
Ryan asked Black Widow to keep watch. "I'm going to pull out a big move. Cover me."
"Okay." Black Widow spotted a tank carving tracks through the snow ahead.
A tank was a steel beast of the land. The roar of its diesel engine alone was enough to make someone tremble, never mind its long cannon barrel.
Black Widow had no way to deal with that iron shell. She had been about to call Banner in to transform into the Hulk, but perhaps Ryan could handle it.
Even weakened, a hero who had once saved the world should