Tony's overprotectiveness

"Hello, I'm looking for Miss Morgan. Where is she?" Lin Yi walked up to the entrance of Stark Tower... no, Morgan Tower, and stopped someone who looked like a security guard to ask.

He didn't like using Super Vision without a reason. Seeing through things indiscriminately made him feel like a pervert.

"Miss Morgan?" The guard he had stopped looked puzzled. "There's no one by that name here. Sir, are you sure you're in the right place?"

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes. "Morgan Stark. That old geezer Tony Stark's daughter. You're telling me you don't know her?"

The guard immediately grew wary. "Sir, what are you talking about? Mr. Stark has no wife or daughter. Are you here to cause trouble?"

With that, the guard promptly pulled out a radio.

"Hello, captain, there's someone at the entrance..."

Snap.

Lin Yi snapped his fingers, and the guard instantly went blank, lowering the radio in his hand.

Lin Yi clicked his tongue and headed inside. No one stopped him. In fact, no one even registered his presence.

Sure enough, Tony had used the Mind Stone to erase most people's awareness of Morgan.

You're way too protective, you old geezer.

His guess seemed to have been right. Something major must have happened to push Tony's protectiveness toward Morgan to such an absurd extreme. Was it because Pepper had died?

No choice, then. Super Vision, activate!

Oh-ho, old Tony's on the top floor, staring at a screen!

What's he watching? Oh, the Stark Tower security feed! Seeing his own face appear on the screen, Lin Yi glanced around, found the camera, and flipped it off. Apparently deciding one middle finger wasn't enough, he raised his other hand too.

Only when Tony's face darkened did he lower his hands in satisfaction.

Where's Morgan? Oh, on the third floor!

Morgan was in a room on the third floor, holding a robot dog and mumbling something he couldn't make out.

Poor kid. Look what that old geezer Tony's done to her. She doesn't even have a single friend left, so she has to make friends with a robot dog?

Lin Yi strolled leisurely up to the third floor and politely knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Morgan's puzzled voice came from inside.

Normally, never mind anyone coming to see her—even if she approached someone herself, they would soon stop noticing she existed. Managing a two-second conversation was already pretty good. And this wasn't the time her unreliable daddy usually came to see her, either.

Yesterday, though, she had met someone who could keep talking to her and remain aware of her existence. But he hadn't seemed like a good person. According to JARVIS's analysis, he was either an alien or someone from another universe.

She had planned to find a chance today to see if she could capture him, but after visiting the cemetery last night, she really wasn't in the mood.

Outside the door, Lin Yi stopped himself just before blurting out, "It's your dad."

"Your devoted fan, of course, Miss Morgan!"

"You promised to take me out to have fun today. Don't tell me you've forgotten!"

Lin Yi? Morgan's eyes lit up at the sound of his voice, and she scampered over to open the door.

Seeing that it really was Lin Yi, Morgan looked astonished. "How did you get up here? Aren't there Stark Industries guards at the entrance?"

Lin Yi chuckled and began making things up. "I just gave them your name, of course!"

"When they heard I was a fan of yours, Miss Morgan, they let me right up. They even kindly gave me directions!"

Morgan's eyes dimmed for a moment. Pouting, she stepped aside.

"Come in. Stop lying to me. They can't even notice I exist."

Seeing her little expression as she pretended to be mature and hid her disappointment, Lin Yi couldn't resist reaching out his wicked hand and ruffling her hair into a bird's nest. "You're too young to act so grown-up! Come on, tell me where we're going today. You're Morgan Stark—you can't lie to your fans!"

"Ah!" Morgan Stark smacked his grubby paw away in annoyance and smoothed her hair.

"What kind of fan messes up someone's hair?"

"Besides, there isn't much left here to do for fun..." As she spoke, Morgan returned to the couch, looking dejected again, and picked up the robot dog.

She might have talked about dealing with Lin Yi, but she knew her daddy had already noticed him. With how closely he watched and protected her, she wouldn't have much chance to spend time with Lin Yi. Her daddy would probably come storming in before long.

Uh... Lin Yi fell silent, at a loss.

How could someone so small seem so lonely?

To be honest, he wasn't very good at cheering children up.

The Morgan in his own universe was well-behaved and knew how to find her own fun.

Back in his universe, rather than saying he took Morgan Stark out to play, it was more accurate to say she always found something fun and invited him along.

This Morgan... seemed nowhere near as happy as the Morgan in his universe.

Forget it. Maybe I shouldn't fool her today. After all, if I want to figure out how to deal with the cosmic virus, I won't earn their trust or help by telling them nothing.

Of course, ultimately, even if they learned about his universe, it wouldn't be a problem as long as its coordinates stayed secret.

Besides, his own universe was in a precarious state right now too.

"How about... I take you for a flight?" Lin Yi thought it over and decided that sounded good. The Morgan in his universe loved that.

But things were different here! Morgan Number Two gave Lin Yi a look of sympathetic concern.

"I have the suit daddy gave me. I can fly by myself."

...Fair point.

"Then how about... I take you blast fishing?"

Lin Yi thought children her age probably all enjoyed blasting fish, didn't they?

Before, only his Heat Vision could really be used for blasting fish. Now, with all the assorted magic he had, he could do it in all sorts of ways.

"Blast fishing? Not interested." Morgan clearly wasn't interested in that either. She curled farther into the couch, holding the robot dog and gazing gloomily out the window. When her eyes passed over the security camera in the corner, she hesitated before speaking.

"I can't take you out to play today. You'd better leave. Daddy will come to catch you soon."

Morgan felt that Lin Yi didn't seem like a good person, but he didn't look like a bad one either. Then again, she knew bad people never had it written on their faces. Hadn't her daddy been the same? He'd trusted those aliens, and then mommy...

At that thought, the atmosphere around her grew even heavier.

How could he describe Morgan's expression? Disappointed, sad, melancholy? Such a tiny girl, shrouded in such a heavy cloud of sorrow that Lin Yi could hardly breathe as he watched her.

Anger welled up inside him, stirring his protective instincts at the same time.

What the hell was this universe's Tony doing? How could he have raised Morgan to be like this?!

After glaring furiously at the camera, Lin Yi walked toward Morgan, seemingly having made up his mind.

Tony, hiding in a dark room on the top floor, looked even more furious!

"JARVIS, did he glare at me? He actually dared to glare at me?!" Tony slammed the table and roared.

"Yes, sir. Based on his facial expression, the subject harbors resentment toward you. He appears to be blaming you for your overprotectiveness toward Miss Morgan."

JARVIS deliberately emphasized "overprotectiveness." Clearly, he didn't particularly approve of Tony Stark's methods either.