New Family: The Marquez Family
Carlos Marquez (Father): A charming Colombian-American architect who grew up in Miami and runs his own small design firm. Old friends with Jay Pritchett.
Lucia Marquez (Mother): A spirited tech-savvy Filipina woman with a sharp wit and warm energy. Works in IT consulting, often helping Claire with "laptop problems" that are usually just unplugged monitors.
Ryan Marquez (MC): 14 years old. Secret reincarnator. In his past life, he was a struggling robotics engineer who died in a lab explosion—only to wake up in this new world, fused with Tony Stark's entire intellect, scientific intuition, and tech knowledge.
Gabby Marquez (Sister): 10 years old. Talkative, dramatic, and idolizes Gloria. Wants to become a telenovela star.T
oby Marquez (Dog): A corgi with more personality than most people.
The Marquez family just moved into the neighborhood next door to the Dunphys, right before the events of Season 1.
Chapter One: Rebooted in Suburbia
Ryan Marquez stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and tried not to panic. Again.
His face looked like that of a normal 14-year-old boy: short black hair, soft brown skin, slightly sleepy eyes—definitely not the face of a man who once designed an AI that could control a drone swarm during a military defense simulation. Yet, the memories were crystal clear. His last moments in his old life were filled with white-hot heat, smoke, and the realization that pushing the arc reactor beyond 450% wasn't a "fun idea" after all.
And now, he was here. In this body. In a pastel blue bathroom. In California.
In the world of Modern Family.
"Ryan! Desayuno is ready!" his mom yelled from downstairs.
He blinked hard and wiped his face with a towel. He wasn't sure what freaked him out more—the fact that his reincarnation came with all of Tony Stark's knowledge embedded in his skull… or the fact that his new mom made killer pancakes and his new dad wore floral aprons unironically.
Downstairs, the Marquez house was a perfectly chaotic blend of cultures. Colombian coffee on the stove, a karaoke machine in the dining room, and an IKEA bookshelf barely standing under the weight of sci-fi novels and family photos.
Lucia Marquez, in yoga pants and a Wonder Woman shirt, looked up from her laptop. "You okay, mi amor? You were in the bathroom for, like, twenty minutes. That's either a record or a cry for help."
"I'm good. Just... taking a victory lap after surviving another night of not being attacked by sentient killer robots," Ryan muttered.
She blinked. "You've been watching Westworld again, haven't you?"
Carlos, walking in with an espresso and half a croissant, raised a brow. "Son, you better not be watching those late-night robot shows. They give your tía nightmares."
Gabby, already in her pink unicorn hoodie, was feeding Toby a slice of bacon under the table. "Toby says robots are lame. And he's basically a superhero."
Ryan sat down at the table, his mind already drifting. He had ten years—give or take—before AI would really start creeping into the mainstream. And he couldn't just start building suits of armor or releasing clean energy blueprints. It was too soon. He'd promised himself he wouldn't mess with the timeline too much.
Besides, this wasn't the Marvel universe. This was Modern Family. Nobody was getting snapped here.
He hoped.
"Hey," Lucia said, passing him a plate. "Your dad and I were thinking—you should make some new friends. There's a girl named Alex across the street who's super smart like you. And then there's Luke, who's... well, Luke."
Carlos chuckled. "He once tried to ride a Roomba like a skateboard. It ended about as well as you'd expect."
Ryan already knew. He remembered that scene from Season 1, episode 2. The perks—and curses—of reincarnating in a TV show universe.
"Yeah, maybe I'll say hi after school."
"Good. Because we're not raising a hermit genius. You've already built a drone out of kitchen blenders and freaked out the mailman."
Ryan smirked. "It wasn't just kitchen blenders. It had ultrasonic mapping and adaptive obstacle avoidance."
Lucia deadpanned. "It also chased Gabby halfway down the block."
"Best cardio of my life!" Gabby said, grinning proudly.
After school, Ryan stood outside his house, watching the Dunphys across the street. Claire was arguing with Phil about a broken sprinkler. Luke was trying to put wheels on a backpack leaf blower. Alex sat on the steps reading A Brief History of Time like it was a beach novel.
He took a deep breath and crossed the street.
"Hi. I'm Ryan," he said, approaching Alex.
She looked up slowly, peering over the edge of her book. "Are you lost or just brave?"
"I live across the street. Just moved in."
"Ah," she said, marking her page. "Welcome to the circus."
Ryan smiled. "Nice book. Hawking's okay, but I prefer Michio Kaku's field theory lectures."
Her brow lifted slightly. "You know Kaku?"
"Let's just say... I've studied some quantum models."
She tilted her head. "Are you one of those kids who memorizes Wikipedia to sound impressive?"
"Only when it's fun," he replied smoothly. "I also have thoughts on fusion micro-reactors, if you're interested."
She stared for a second longer. "You're weird. But I like that."
Phil walked over, holding a wrench and a soggy shoe. "Hey there, sport! I'm Phil Dunphy. Cool to see some new faces around here. Are you into magic? Drones? Playing 'Risk' like it's a blood sport?"
"I like drones. Built a few, actually."
Phil's eyes lit up. "We are going to get along so well."
From the second-floor window, Haley peeked out, gave Ryan a once-over, and muttered, "Huh. Not bad."
Back home, Ryan sat in his room, surrounded by blueprints, textbooks, and a mini-reactor core he was designing with scrap parts. His interface—a primitive version of F.R.I.D.A.Y.—ran on a custom PC built from 1999 components but running software twenty years ahead of its time.
"Alpha, run diagnostic on capacitor flow," he said softly.
The voice of a calm British woman replied, "All systems operating within safe parameters, Master Marquez."
He smiled.
This world might look simple—family arguments, school crushes, goofy uncles and clueless dads—but Ryan Marquez had big plans.
He was going to revolutionize technology, reshape the economy... and still make it home for taco night.
Because this wasn't just Modern Family anymore.
This was the beginning of a genius uprising—with a side of sitcom.