ROMANOGERS: PAST TO PRESENT

Chapter Eleven

Tony's POV

We arrived back at the tower and quickly headed inside leaving the agents to do all of the unloading. I had a task in mind, something that had been bugging me for quite some time. Immediately detaching myself from our injured and hobbling group I headed to the lab. My equipment was polished and ready to be used waiting for me to set to work. Sitting down in my wheely chair I drummed my fingers on my desk. What to do? How to proceed? Finally deciding I reached into my pocket producing the lighter I had taken. Resting it on my desk I stared at it's polished surface. We need a clue. Something to figure out who's been messing with us. First the box, then the security breech, now the fire, and the gigantic burning X.

"Jarvis can you scan this for finger prints?" I asked picking up the lighter and scanning it into the computer.

"Sure thing sir." With that I pushed myself across the lab and grabbed one of my tablets before rolling back to my desk. Clicking a few keys I activated the tablet which was also connected to Jarvis, well Jarvis 2.0, since Ultron decided to be an ass and kill my original Jarvis.

"Jarvis give me an aerial view of the woods we visited." I clicked another button activating a probe. It was small with a camera and different gadgets. Steve had insisted on me making a probe that could travel for miles and observe the landscape so we knew what we were dealing with in a fight. Of course the only reason he wanted this was because I may have accidentally told him that the terrain should be flat. Instead he had to climb an entire mountain to get to his designated post, oops.

"The probe is ready and on its way sir." It would take the thing a few hours to get to Russia. Did I mention it was able to fly at the speed of a jet?

"Alright thanks Jarvis. How's the scan?" I asked pulling up a holographic image of the lighter.

"There are two sets of fingertips sir. They belong to Tony Stark and Thor Odinson." What? That didn't make any sense. There should have been a third set. Somebody had to have used the lighter.

"Jarvis can you estimate how many times this lighter was used?" I asked. There was a pause as he calculated.

"Approximately twice sir." Okay that made sense. I used it once and the Fire-Happy-Town-Burner must have used it once as well.

" Can you tell me the location where it was bought?"

"It was not bought sir. This is a custom build. It does not register with any other information I have in my data banks." Okay not helpful.

"Can you tell me what the difference is?" I rotated the lighter before pulling up images of others. They looked the same to me.

"The insides sir run on a complicated circuit. Some lighters use batteries others don't but this allows the flame to grow larger if need be and increase with intensity or heat. Most lighters have a small burning flame and stay around one temperature." So there was no way I could trace this person at all? No there had to be something. I was deep in thought when I heard the rapping of knuckles on wood. Turning in my chair I was faced with Natasha leaning casually against the door frame.

"Watcha doing Stark?" I sighed running a hand down my face.

"Trying to figure out what asshole started this fire." Picking up the lighter I tossed it to her which she caught with a single swift motion. "Thor, Steve, and I found it. Jarvis can't find any finger prints and we can't trace who bought it and where-" She cut me off finishing my sentence.

"Because it's custom." She studied it flipping it on and off a few times the flame shooting out seeming eager to catch something in its heated grasp. "Have you tried searching the scene?"