Do I Look Like Your Dad?

As it turned out, the routine worked. Morgan Stark was already beside herself with laughter, giggling so hard that anyone listening might have thought someone had left a chicken coop open.

"Well? Do I look like your dad?"

Lin Yi grinned. With those flashy moves and a voice that was a perfect match, anyone would have sworn he was Tony Stark.

"You do! You really do!" Morgan played along, beaming as she clapped her little hands for Lin Yi.

"Hey, if that's what you think, come on—punch me!" Lin Yi laughed too. He ran over, crouched beside Morgan, and gestured for her to hit him in the chest.

She was playing along so well. He couldn't let her down!

Morgan put her hands on her hips and cheerfully threw a soft little punch.

"Urgh!" Lin Yi threw himself into the act, still using Tony Stark's voice.

As if he had taken a devastating blow, he hopped backward twice while still crouched, clutching his chest. Then he toppled to the ground with a thud and begged for mercy.

"Ah! Miss Morgan is too powerful! She defeated Iron Man, Tony Stark!"

"Urgh! Too powerful! Please spare me, Miss Morgan! I was wrong! It was all my fault!"

"Forgive me, Miss Morgan!"

Lin Yi rolled around on the ground in the Mark LXXXV, speaking in Tony's voice without a shred of shame.

What was shame, anyway? He was Tony Stark right now. If anyone was embarrassing himself, it was Tony Stark!

Morgan jumped up in excitement. Shrieking, she crouched and pummeled the Mark LXXXV with her little fists. Every time she hit him, Lin Yi rolled over, farther and farther away.

Morgan's uninhibited laughter echoed across the entire entrance to the amusement park. She was truly letting loose.

At the Stark Industries tower, Tony Stark grabbed at his hair, looking half out of his mind.

"What is he doing? And what is Morgan doing?"

Watching the two of them make a spectacle of themselves using his face made embarrassment crawl all over him.

"Ah! In less than two hours, she's ready to replace me as her daddy?!"

"And another thing! Where did that Mark LXXXV come from? How did he get it?!"

"JARVIS!" Tony was losing it, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the screen.

"Sir, I have not detected any missing armor."

"Additionally, Sir, the target has been confirmed to possess spatial storage technology. The match probability has risen to 58.92%."

"Is that what I asked? I asked where he got the armor!" Tony snapped.

"Sir, the target likely comes from a Parallel Universe. This matches one of the characteristics described by the Quantum Man. His armor may have been given to him by another version of you from that universe."

"I attempted to connect to the armor, but it refused access. Would you like me to try forcing a connection?"

Thud!

Thud, thud!

Tony slammed the desk twice and gritted his teeth. "Not yet!"

Another him? Hah. He must have been out of his mind to give a brat like that the Mark LXXXV. What had he been thinking?

After playing with Morgan for another long while in the Mark LXXXV, Lin Yi was finally exhausted.

Fighting wasn't nearly as tiring as entertaining a kid!

After leaving the amusement park, Lin Yi held Morgan's little hand as they looked for somewhere to have dinner.

After today, Lin Yi had already made it onto her list of best friends.

Hah. Friendship was that simple when you were a kid!

"Lin Yi, why do you have Daddy's Mark armor?" They had found a Chinese restaurant and ordered some food. Once they were seated by the window, Morgan finally asked about the armor. She knew her daddy well: he would almost never give a Mark suit to anyone else, even if he had a new suit now and the Mark LXXXV's technology could be considered last-generation.

"Good question. Didn't I tell you I came from another universe?"

"You know about Parallel Universes? Your dad from another universe gave it to me." Lin Yi told her the truth. There was no reason to lie to Morgan about it; he had already decided this information wasn't important.

Morgan's eyes lit up again.

"Really? Your universe has my daddy too?"

Morgan didn't know much about Parallel Universes. She only knew the concept existed.

"That's right. Parallel Universes often develop in similar ways, but the details can be worlds apart. They can even end up with completely different futures."

"From what I've seen, our two universes are very similar. I just can't check their past histories to confirm it."

"Our universe doesn't just have your dad. It has another you, too!" Lin Yi said with a smile. He reached out and pulled a phone from thin air.

He beckoned Morgan closer and opened the photo album.

"Wow! A younger Daddy?" Morgan stared at the photo in fascination.

Tony was in the picture, proudly holding something up to show the camera.

This daddy barely had any gray hair. Her own daddy's hair was half gray already.

Lin Yi swiped to the next photo. It showed a younger Morgan in Tony's arms. He held a cake in his other hand, and the two of them had just gotten out of a car.

"Is that me?" Morgan reached out in surprise and touched the screen, bringing up a line of information.

2022: Morgan's third birthday.

Little Morgan looked almost exactly like her, as though she were seeing herself a few years ago. It felt strange to look at someone identical to herself who had lived through a past she hadn't.

"Are there more? Are there more?" Morgan was polite enough not to flip through the album herself. Instead, she looked up at Lin Yi expectantly.

"Of course! I'll show you!" Lin Yi had no reason to refuse such a small request, so he flipped through the photos one by one.

There was nothing in his camera roll a child shouldn't see, so he wasn't worried at all.

Banner posing, Steve smiling with his shield raised—Lin Yi had taken those casually at the Avengers Compound.

"That's Uncle Thor!" Morgan stared at Thor's potbelly. Daddy had told her Uncle Thor used to be fat, but this was the first time she had seen it!

"This is..." Lin Yi turned to the next photo and felt a little awkward.

The camera angle was low, as if a child had held the phone up to take the picture. In it, Lin Yi and Tony were giving each other the middle finger.

Morgan pressed her lips together to stifle a laugh. "I can tell you're really close to Daddy in the other universe!"

"We get along all right." Lin Yi scratched his head and quickly swiped to the next photo. Then his expression froze. Oh, this is bad!

Sure enough, the moment Morgan saw the photo, she went rigid and fell silent.

Lin Yi pressed his lips together. Careless. He reached out to swipe the photo away, but Morgan stopped him.

"Mommy..." Morgan's voice was low as she stared blankly at the screen.

It was a group photo. Pepper and Tony sat on a picnic blanket on the grass by a lake.

And a little Morgan sat between them.

"In your universe, Mommy's still alive, right...?" Morgan spoke quietly, her face lowered so Lin Yi couldn't see her expression. All he could do was pat her on the head and hope it brought her some comfort.

"Yes. Mommy's still alive. The other you is happy. She has a wonderful life..."

Lin Yi regretted it the moment he said it. Wasn't that just twisting the knife? Me and my big mouth!

"Hello! Here are your meals. Enjoy."

Just as Lin Yi was wondering how to comfort Morgan, a waiter arrived at the worst possible moment and, without expression, set a large meal and a small one in front of them.

Morgan said nothing. She didn't look at Lin Yi's phone again, either. She picked up her fork and quietly began eating her meal.

Lin Yi scratched his head. Well, hell. It feels like the whole afternoon was for nothing. One photo had undone all the work he'd put into cheering her up.