6) An Ocean of Light
As sparks fly from fighting swords, the annihilations between matter and antimatter left in their wake an abundance of radiant photons, which are the messenger particles of light. All the remaining matter bobbed aimlessly in a growing, glowing ocean, which washed the disconnected matter back and forth continuously. Within the plasma it was now fiercely bright, but the photons could not travel far enough to truly shine, because the universe was still a thick fog.
the Protons and Neutrons were stumbling through this fog and were trying to get together, but the photons wouldn’t give them the space they needed. When they first tried to bond, with the help of the Gluons, a photon would zip through in a flash and send them spinning in different directions. After a while, the photons became less excitable and let some Neutrons and Protons fuse together. Other Protons were happy to stay single and independant. But they were all still missing something. To be a proper unit, an atom, these new nuclei needed to catch onto an Electron. Alas, the hyperactive photons were now concerned with jostling about the smaller Electrons, and so no nuclei could hold onto them. Becuase of this, no atoms could be made.
Up to this point, the universe had been incredibly busy and moving very fast. Reality felt it had worked pretty hard and decided it was time to take a well-earned breather. The dense ocean of light stretched on, and it stayed like this for a very, very long time.
