A Recipe for Disaster

Ingredients:

-six shattered Avengers

-one overconfident Loki

-a minimum of two Infinity Stones, max six

-a pinch of humour

-a handful of SHIELD agents

-a spoonful of weapons

-a city (to mix it all into)

First throw the Avengers, Loki and the Infinity stones into the City.

Then add the humor, the weapons and mix thoroughly. (Not Thor-roughly, thoroughly. There's only one r.)

After that finely chop some SHIELD agents and add them to the mixture. Squash any lumps and mix until batter is smooth.

Finally bake in the heat of a battle until crispy golden brown.

ENJOY!!

...

WHAT IF...

Clint Barton never joined the Avengers. What if he never became more than a SHIELD agent with a bow. What if, on top of that, being hypnotised by Loki cost him his job? What if he lived the rest of his life in isolation on his farm, with nothing and nobody around him except his closest family? The Avengers didn't need an archer without superpowers, why would they?

"Dad, why aren't you part of SHIELD anymore?"

"They didn't want me Cooper. I wasn't good enough for them."

"But you can shoot so well!"

Clint smiled sadly.

"That's not good enough buddy. They think they're above people without superpowers."

His jaw steeled.

"One day, I'll show them they're wrong."

-

WHAT IF...

Bruce Banner wasn't called to the Helicarrier so he could help. What if instead, SHIELD had been trying to exterminate him? Even the Hulk wouldn't survive a fall from a Helicarrier into the middle of an ocean, right? So what if Natasha had been there to warn him of the dangers to come, so he could disappear into nowhere and never return? Besides, what use did the Avengers have of an out-of-control scientist anyway?

"Don't believe anything they say. They're here to kill you."

"Why would they do that?"

"Correction — they're not here to kill  YOU, they're here to kill the Other Guy."

"That I CAN believe. But then... why are you here?"

"To warn you."

"Why would you do that for me?"

"I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it against SHIELD."

-

WHAT IF...

Tony Stark wasn't accepted into the Avengers because of his 'bad qualities'. We all know he doesn't play well with others. It would be wayyyy too dangerous to let him onto the team. Wouldn't it? What if he never become more than just "Iron Man" and "genius, billionaire, playboy, philantrophist"? What if he stayed in his Tower instead of going to the Helicarrier, and evacuated like everyone else when the city was until Loki's attack, leaving his home in the hands of the Avengers? Because to be fair, he was too selfish to help the team. He'd always put himself before the world when it came to life-and-death scenarios... right?

"Tony Stark, get a grip!"

"Pepper, they're expecting me to move out of my tower so the Avengers can move into it. And you're expecting me not to protest?"

"No, I'm expecting you to whine like crazy until you realize you don't stand a chance against Fury and then just give in and move to Malibu."

-

WHAT IF...

Natasha Romanoff, Natalia Alienova Romanova, was too dangerous for the team. What if she'd almost been killed by Barton, and he simply failed? What if she refused to join SHIELD because of that, and lived her life as a rogue, to the point of warning Bruce of SHIELD's plans just to annoy them? What if she never believed a word any SHIELD agents after that said, simply because once one of them had tried to kill her? She couldn't be of any use to them — there was just too much red in her past. What could she do for the world except what she was best at — assassinating?

"Barton."

"Romanoff."

"You tried to kill me last time we met."

"I did NOT!"

"Of course not. But to be fair, anyone would say that if they had a knife against their throat."

-

WHAT IF...

Thor Odinson had been rejected as an Avenger because he was "too arrogant" and "clueless about Earth's ways". What if SHIELD had decided to ban all Asgardians after Loki's attack? What if Thor stayed on Asgard with Loki locked up on Earth, wishing endlessly for Jane and yet isolated from Midgard? What if... he forgot Jane entirely?

"Father..."

"Yes Thor?"

"Why do the Midgardians hate us?"

"Wouldn't you, if your depiction of Asgardians was Loki?"

"Oh."

"Besides, who cares about them anyway? We have the Tesseract, don't we?"

"Ehhmmm..."

-

WHAT IF...

Steve Rogers hadn't been good enough for the Avengers. What if he'd been left in the ice — or better still, not frozen at all? What if he lived out his days with Peggy Carter, not knowing of such things as "Asgard", "Avengers" and "Loki"? Or what if had been frozen and unfrozen, just to be kept in a lab so they could reproduce the Serum that had made him who he was? Kept locked up in SHIELD's underground base, no contact with the outside world... They didn't need him on the team — he'd been refused over a girl by the name of Mockingjay, who apparently had the same abilities as him and more anyway since they'd managed to copy the Serum. Why would they want Steve on the team — what did he have that others didn't?

"Steve. We need you."

"Don't lie to me Stark. Nobody needs me."

"Peggy did."

-

And on top of that all...

What if Loki, with the Mind Stone as well as the Tesseract to his disposal, was smarter than all of them combined?