Chapter 6: Singularity

A LITTLE WHILE LATER, BACK AT POWER MAN & IRON FIST'S APARTMENT BUILDING...

HULK: Hi guys.  Thanks watch baby.  Dr. Strange says that thing end of world.  No surprise Hulk.

SILVER SURFER: Hulk, you better go tell Grey Hulk and Red Hulk what's going on.  I'll catch these guys up to speed, get the baby, and then you and I can head over to meet up with Strange, Namor, and Mr. Fantastic.

HULK: Okay, sound good.  Hulk sorry for trouble, Power Man, Iron Fist.

IRON FIST: It really hasn't been any trouble at all.  It's just a shame that...I mean, Power Man over there would be such a good father...but I guess...*sigh*

NEXT DOOR...

RED HULK: So all this time, we've had the end of the world under our roof?  Why am I not surprised?

GREY HULK: But a Monad...fascinating.  I assume you're taking the little bugger to see Richards, then?

RED HULK: When you're done, I'm serious, send ol' Stretch on over.  You've done a real number on the plumbing, Hulk.

HULK: Article in Ladies' Home Journal said fiber good for Hulk.  Now Hulk get Silver Surfer and baby, save world.  Bye, guys.

AND BACK AT THE OTHER NEXT DOOR, i.e., POWER MAN & IRON FIST'S SWINGING PAD...

IRON FIST: Wow...a Monad.  Sounds like we're all in pretty deep crap.  You be sure to let us know if we can do anything to...um...damn, Norrin, you're looking pretty tight.  Been working out?  A few extra reps at the gym or something?

SILVER SURFER: Um...not...*cough*...um, not really.

POWER MAN: I see what you're saying, though, Iron Fist.

IRON FIST: Maybe you and I ought to start surfing.  Looks like it really works the glutes.

POWER MAN: Yo, hey there, Hulk!

SILVER SURFER: Hulk!  Oh, thank god.

HULK: You guys done?  Gotta get baby to Richards and save world.

SILVER SURFER: Yeah, let's get outta here.  Now.

LATER, AT THE BAXTER BUILDING, HEADQUARTERS OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR...

DR. STRANGE: Here's the baby I told you about, Reed.  The Monad.

INVISIBLE WOMAN:  So this little fella is the end of the world, eh?

MR. FANTASTIC: Yes, tell me again, what exactly do you think this thing is?

INVISIBLE WOMAN: Reed, it's not a thing; it's a baby.

THE THING: Hey! Whatsat supposed ta mean?

DR. STRANGE:  A Monad, Reed.  Metaphysically speaking, it is the substance from which all existence is born.  Matter...and spirit.  

MR. FANTASTIC: I've heard of the Pythagoreans' monad; it's what they called the beginning number in a series, the number from which the following numbers derived.  But clearly, that's not what we've got here.  

SILVER SURFER: Actually, that sounds about right.

INVISIBLE WOMAN: Gentlemen, I'm sorry I have to miss this scintillating conversation, but this baby is hungry.  Hulk, have you been feeding him?

HULK: That Grey Hulk's job.

MR. FANTASTIC: As far as matter--an actual substance...I don't know anything about any "monad," but Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that there was a point in time at which the temperature, density, and curvature of the universe were all infinite--a situation called "singularity."

SILVER SURFER: Ah, but isn't that where the theory breaks down, Reed?  Relativity does not predict how the universe began, it only posits that it somehow it evolved from the point of singularity.  

MR. FANTASTIC: Well, certainly the theory has its limits.  But quantum theory posits that--

DR. STRANGE: --Reed, you're the smartest man I know, and are probably the smartest man on Earth.  But this baby is beyond all that science knows.  You're going to have to trust me.  We are in really, really deep crap.

INVISIBLE WOMAN: Feynman's Sum Over Histories, Reed.

MR. FANTASTIC: Hm?

INVISIBLE WOMAN: Feynman's Sum.  It allows for every possible history of the universe.  And maybe this baby--this Monad--has nothing to do with the history of our universe.  Maybe it's the beginning of someone else's. 

MR. FANTASTIC: In which case, it would be the end of ours.

DR. STRANGE: Bingo!

NAMOR: Oh, man.  We are in deep crap.  Listen, I appreciate the science lesson here, but how do we prevent the "end of our universe" part of this?

MR. FANTASTIC:  I'll run some tests to see if I can find out where this thing--

INVISIBLE WOMAN: --This baby.

MR. FANTASTIC: This baby came from.  First, let's see how much he weighs.  Ben, if you'd be so kind as to get the atomic clock I've got in the diagnostics lab...

THE THING: Atomic clock?  If yer weighin' the kid, don't you want a scale?

MR. FANTASTIC: If this baby is what you call a Monad, it's essentially--for now, anyway--a biological potential.  Theoretically, it will eventually condense to infinite density, creating a supermassive black hole at the center of the universe.  I'm going to use atomic clocks to measure the effect of the child's mass on time...

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7: EVENT HORIZON!