The madness consumes (open to all)

[Ayin & Sigma]

((OOC: Can anyone stop the chaos?))

His mind was shattered and fractured, his sanity even more broken than it had been before he had crossed paths with Dr. Strange. Where once only menacing shadows had lurked in the deeper reaches of his subconscious, now slavering demons reached out and clawed at the final vestiges of the min of Dr. Jared Erskine.

After his tumultuous battle with the sorcerer he had fled hard and fast, not caring where he was going as he attempted to flee the spectres that haunted him. Sigma had criss-crossed and careered his way across the country, flying quickly and erratically at high altitude. He had somehow ended up over the outskirts of Blüdhaven, a city he had never before visited and had never intended to.

Looking down through the clouds, a drained and weary Sigma saw a park-like area in a small, suburban district. It looked pleasant enough, and surely he could hide in the trees. They’d never ever find him there.
The madman laughed manically before plummeting downwards, heading for a grassy verge at the edge of the field. He had escaped! He was going to be free!

Only two hundred yards or so above his intended landing spot, Sigma was suddenly struck by another spasm of pain and anguish. The fiery power of the sorcerer wracked his body and his brains, burning away at more than just his physical body.
Sigma twisted and contorted in the air, seemingly forgetting all about landing and failing completely to turn or decelerate.
The grassy earth erupted with a booming thud as the black and green suited super-powered villain struck the ground. Tufts of dirt and clouds of soil spewed out of the small impact crater, landing around the hole in the earth in a ragged circle of filth.

It was dark.

Everything was dark now, and in that darkness the demons lurked.

Sigma shrieked and sat bolt upright, opening his eyes. He looked about, seeing that he was in the same park as before, but something was different. It was dark for one thing, and the colours of the landscape seemed somehow distorted, hellish maybe.
The lights of the housing estate burned brightly nearby, like a hellfire beacon drawing the beasts of the abyss to it – to him. He immediately realized what had happened – his demons had finally taken form, possessing the bodies of those people nearby and warping the land as they attempted to drag this region of space into the hellish void from whence they came.

It was in fact still daylight, and around four O’clock in the afternoon. Sigma had been unconscious for less than half an hour, and had attracted the attention of a young boy of perhaps thirteen or fourteen years of age.
The child had been kicking a ball around on the other side of the park, which was quite empty that day – as it was more often than not. He had seen and heard the impact of Sigma’s landing and had run over, curious as children are, to investigate.
The child looked over the lip of the small, deep crater that the impact had carved out of the earth. It wasn’t a meteor like he’d hoped, but some odd, injured looking masked man.
The man was unconscious it seemed, though it was hard to tell behind the faceplate on his mask. He was wearing a black, form fitting outfit punctuated with dark-green, and looked hurt. There were frayed holes in the material on his chest and the exposed skin looked lightly burned. The whole costume was covered with dust and mud and crossed with buffs and scratches.

“Are you alright mister?” The kid asked, wondering whether or not he should get his parents.

That was when Sigma suddenly awoke. After sitting up and looking around, he eventually noticed something. There was a dark and terribly shadow leaning over him, looking down with red, burning eyes and a maw that ran with liquid fire. It had said something to him in a language he did not understand, and Sigma panicked.

Raising his arm quickly he cast a bolt of energy at the shadow, surprised to see that it had simply evaporated, as if blown away by a strong wind. In truth the child had been completely disintegrated.
Standing and staggering out of the crater, Sigma retched dryly and clutched at his head. The pain was terrible and he had to make it go away. Suddenly the madman realized – he would extinguish the fires and kill the demons who had watched and taunted him from their cluster of hellish buildings down the road.

As the energy-fuelled madman staggered through the suburban neighbourhood, he left the beginnings of a trail of death and destruction, from a rampage that would not soon end. Unbeknownst to Sigma, it would take several more hours for the magic to dissipate and return him to his previous and comparative levels of sanity.

((OOC: Sigma’s suit was damaged by Dr. Strange earlier, so he’s not capable of extending energy manipulation fields more than a few feet from his body, as he relies on the suit to enhance his reach.))

[Dr. Strange]

He had sorted through the problem of the doctors now within his home, those on what the one doctor (Grunbaum, if he remembered correctly), had called the Death List. It was an odd collection, he had been startled to find himself recognized by one of them for the work he had done as a neurosurgeon all those years ago. That had been most disconcerting, but now it was a non-issue. He needed to take care of the beast, of this creature Sigma, there really was no telling what he would do now that he had absorbed so much magic. He had thought it might kill him, but it sounded as though the creature had gone mad instead. He was a little frightened.

All of these thoughts ran through the mind of Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, as he was propelled forward on the Winds of Watoomb, a scarlet and gold cape fluttering behind him. If he had been utterly unprepared the first time he’d met Sigma this time he had taken no such chances this time. He had his cloak of Levitation on, the Eye of Agamotto hung on his chest, in one hand he had a carved ivory wand, tucked up his sleeve, a new and stronger channel for his ability. It was also worth noting the shimming field that surrounded him, it was a sorcerer’s sphere, a complex spell not only of protection, but one that would hopefully harm the creature he hunted when used properly. The Sphere would absorb every ounce of mystical energy that hung nearby, it would take back the energy Sigma had stolen from him in mere minutes where it might take days to leach back completely.

He was traveling in the air, following the strands of magic that fluttered back to him, moving past Gotham now, to a place he knew less well, the town of Bludhaven, quiet, but still sunny in the early light. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, he felt the source of his magic, he felt it get up and move, and he heard it roar, he touched down in a park, the winds calmed, and Strange looked around. There was a crater and… a pair of smoking shoes, a child’s shoes. Strange felt a surge of horror, he had seen them, when he had projected himself outward he had seen those shoes. He touched down in the grass and walked toward the shoes, he could feel the spirit nearby, not quite moved on. Strange sensed the boy’s spirit, confused, a little angry, he touched it, it moved on, away. Strange began to follow the edge of magic, the energy that the Sorcerer’s Sphere drew away grew more, less a trickle, a steady flow.

And then he saw it, the creature who had stolen his magic and was now mad. There as a trail of destruction, had Strange not been sucking back his energy like a sponge this might have seemed an insurmountable task. Instead it was struck by how the simplest solutions could function well. He placed his hands outward, forward to where the creature walked, and raised a barrier of pure magic, it shimmered in the air, ready to be absorbed. The Sorcerer’s Sphere continued to drag magic from the creature, forming it into a barrier around him. “You! Sigma! Dr. Erskine! Stop this now!” He was shouting, his voice magically projected, the long wand held in one hand, filtering the magic, making it stronger, purer.

[Ayin & Sigma]

All around him the crude dwellings of the demon-folk encircled him - mocked him with their indifference. The odd-shaped structures looked like an odd combination of organic being and red, sandy rock, and stood a little over two stories tall.
Some, further down the dirt trail he walked, now lay in ruin. As he saw the shifting shadows and burning, staring eyes gaze out from within he shrieked and cast energy bolts at the creatures. The dwellings had erupted in a spray of blood, rock and flame, but the demons still haunted him.

Somewhere in the skies above, menacing black shadow-things moved through the darkness, steadily growing closer, staring down at him with malicious intent.
A carriage drawn by invisible demon horses had drawn up beside him earlier on. Sigma had noticed these odd carriages parked around the dwellings and by the side of the road and had thought nothing of them, but this one threw off red and blue light and screaming noise.
Two demon-men creatures had stepped out, yelling curses in a language he didn’t understand and spitting fire from their hands. He had stopped the miniature fiery projectiles easily enough, but shank back as the beasts had approached, before throwing out a huge kinetic shockwave at them.

The two policemen, their vehicle, other cars on the street and almost anything not nailed down were thrown backwards through the air, away from the blast unleashed by Sigma. Glass windows shattered, spraying sharp shards out into the street, car alarms went off and the two law-men were almost killed by the impact, as the force broke many of their bones.

Suddenly the strange little street in the demonic town was filled with a chorus of screeching harpies. They swooped and battered, assaulting his ears. Some took refuge in the carriages and called from their, others in the houses.
Sigma clutched at his head with one hand and ran down the street, casting explosive balls of energy at anything and everything he could see, leaving a trail of fiery destruction in his wake.

His actions must have attracted the attention of the stronger, chief demons, as without warning a great evil-looking winged beast descended from the sky. It landed heavily on the road before him, laughing manically as it threw up a wall of hellfire to block his path. It called out something to him in its twisted, demonic voice. It knew his name – his real name. It wanted his soul!

“What!? Never! Leave me alone!” Sigma shrieked, almost crying and entirely mad. The shout echoed about him, crackling with power as it moved through the air.

He had not noticed the pain in his flesh seem to lessen, and had not noticed that the colours and shapes of the landscape were slowly becoming more normal.
As Dr. Strange began to leech back the magic from the body of the madman, its effects were taking longer to wear off than anyone might have hoped. Beset on all sides by the demons of his nightmares, Sigma was far more dangerously unpredictable than ever before.

Sigma shrank back from the form of Dr. Strange, seeing a great winged demon where the sorcerer supreme stood. Calling out briefly in English, before descending into unintelligible blabbering, he turned and fled, backing down the street as he kept a close watch of the doctor.

He couldn’t escape. There was simply no hope. He would have to fight his demons, that was what all of the self help initiatives told you to do right?

“Die!” Sigma yelled as he stopped and turned to face the demon again. Throwing out his arms and placing his palms together he cast a massive bolt of energy at the demon. Cackling like a madman, he watched as the bolt arced away from him, towards the source of his night terrors.
Afraid for his life and desperate to free himself, Sigma had poured much power into that blast. Possibly enough to obliterate the entire street should it ever impact a solid target.

[Dr. Strange]

There were fires down the street and Strange threw his arms wide, his palms up, and called down the Winds once more. This was his specialty, channeling the water vapor in the air, forming great dark clouds in the sky that crackled with thunder and opened up into an intense downpour over the whole of the little neighborhood. Where once it had been sunny it was now near to night-time, lightning cracked overhead but found no home, it moved throughout the clouds, great writhing strands of light. The winds swirled, their force and the magic that surrounded him causing the doctor’s hair to stand on end, his cloak swirled around him. He might not have looked a demon, but no one of any mind would mistake him for an old man. He was the Sorcerer Supreme, he had fought worse than this and come out far better than alive. He kept the wand firmly in hand.

He followed the creature as it backed away, stopped when it stopped and crossed his arms in front of him, the bolt of energy struck the Sphere, Strange saw it ripple as it absorbed the impact, flashing with white light. It held though, and dispersed the energy in harmless flows behind the doctor. The force had driven him back several feet; however, he lowered his arms and let the wand drop fully into his hand, he held it as one might a sword, he raised a sharp eyebrow. The rain was still falling, huge drops that pounded into the sidewalk, the police officers who remained kept their distance now, the magical wall Strange had put up blocking them out of the battle, though at this point they might have elected to stay away anyway. The red lights caught the puddles of water, the shards of glass that littered the street, making the who neighborhood look half like a war-zone and half like a disco.

“Stop this now, Sigma!” Strange shouted, the wand leveled, his hands remarkably steady. “If you continue onward I will leave my magic with you, and the visions will not cease!” Bolts, like black shards of glass, like rough holes into space flew forward and hung, weightless, surrounding the beast, ready to rush forward and pierce his skin, ready to burrow inward and multiply. “I can make what you’re seeing go away but you must stop fighting them!” He didn’t know how well this would work, but it might be better than simply trying to kill the creature. It was obviously insane, the magic inducing and multiplying a madness that was already there. To those who did not know how to use it, such things could occur, in those already mad it was a terrible thing. The black bolts hung in the air, weightless, while Strange waited.

[Batgirl]

While she was on a routine patrol of Bludhaven, Batgirl saw a very oddly dressed man wreaking havoc on her city and another not-quite-so-oddly dressed man was following after him. She then decided she'd better offer the second gentleman her assistance so she called "Excuse me, you looked like you could use some assistance with your friend there.Would you like a hand with taking him into custody? By the way, I'm Batgirl and your present location of Bludhaven is the city I'm charged with protecting. I don't appreciate the fact your friend thinks he has the privilege of running rampant and creating chaos in my city with no thought at all of the consequences."[/color]Batgirl said hotly to Dr. Strange.

[Dr. Strange]

Most of the population was smart enough to stay back, one would not want to be caught in a battle between these two, the explosions of energy and, in one case, the utter disregard for human life. Strange was grateful for this, it meant that he had to worry less about hitting people in the crossfire, the magic that he spent on the barriers that surrounded them was minimal. In a perfect world he might have hid the destruction in a summoned cyclone, but at this point it seemed like a waste, enough people had already seen him, seen Sigma, that it seemed like a silly misuse of his powers. Might as well let them see what was killing their families and destroying their neighborhoods.

He felt one of the shields nearby wobble and break, he heard a voice. He glanced over, his hands still up, his wand held steadily to maintain the little shards of shadow. There was a girl there, some idiotic girl who had disrupted part of his shield and now stood staring at the vampiric creature. He wondered, briefly, if she was some sort of idiot, but when she offered her help he felt he knew the answer. Batgirl? It might have been the caped crusader himself and Strange would have given him no more thought than he did this girl.

He held a hand to the side and the sphere that surrounded him wobbled slightly, and then spread like a soap bubble to absorb the girl, to protect her. “I appreciate it just as much as you do, however, I do not intend to take this creature into any sort of custody, girl. Now I recommend you get back.” He lowered his hand, replacing both hands on the wand, the bubble of the sphere still hanging around the girl, to protect her.

[Ayin & Sigma]

And now the great demon-thing had a pet! A familiar! It had emerged from seemingly out of nowhere to join the winged monstrosity. It looked much like a reptilian man - or maybe a woman. It was impossible to tell the sex of something so inhuman and covered in spines and glistening secretions.

The demon followed him, keeping the same distance and holding a great sword in one hand. The blade crackled with purple, hellish energy. It would slay him with that thing! It would claim his head as a trophy, and he could not let that happen.

The beast called to him in a tongue unfamiliar to the madman, but he recognized its intent nonetheless. It wanted to trick him, to cajole him into lowering his defences before it could strike him down with ease.

Sigma would not be fooled so easily.

He glanced around nervously at the terrible, awe inspiring storm that had gathered above. Hot rain fell and burned the exposed skin on his chest, as lightning arced between the clouds.
Terrified and desperately afraid, Sigma didn't know what to do. He lost control, falling to floor and hammering at the earth with his fists, crying and blabbering all the while.

"You can't have my soul!" The madman laughed manically, through floods of tears. "Leave me BE!" He shouted, amplifying his voice with his power.

The shout shot through the neighbourhood with the force of a blast shockwave, rocking cars and toppling anything not knocked over or destroyed by the previous blast. Almost instantly following the cry, Sigma stood once more.
Now his eyes burned with the strength and determination of the truly desperate, and the dark light of the truly insane. Saying nothing more, he drew deeply on the well of energy stored within his body, casting almost all of it out in a massive, expanding sphere.

The expanding globe of pure, green energy seemed tinged with purple in places, as if some of the magic within his body had also been expelled in the attack, as Sigma forced the power out of him entirely accidentally, and without knowing it.
As it grew, the barrier threw up asphalt, concrete and dirt from the ground, knocked the surrounding structures flat and crushed, burned or obliterated almost everything it touched. Nothing could survive that – surely?

Feeling somewhat drained, Sigma fainted. He crumpled, falling to the floor in the centre of a charred and scorched wasteland. Twitching slightly, he murmured as he lay there unconscious, still unable to escape the demons.

[Dr. Strange]

He shouted something, Strange made out the words and took in a breath. Somehow he had the feeling this wasn’t going to end well, not at all. His hands remained up, strengthening the sphere, layering the magic to draw in some of the energy Sigma was planning to expel, the Eye of Agamotto on his chest flashing scarlet. The color was draining from his face and his hands were shaking with the effort of maintaining the Sphere, it was lucky Sigma released the wave of energy or else the whole shield might have dropped from sight and the Sorcerer Supreme been utterly obliterated.

The sphere dragged in every inch of magic energy, and a fairly good amount of what was not. The sorcerer felt the rush of power and redoubled his efforts on the outer shields he had placed up. They succeeded in blocking the energy from getting too far, and the circle of destruction took in just this city block and a little more, windows blown out, a few buildings demolished, but those people who had been smart enough to stay well back and get on the ground seemed to be alright, a little scratched and bruised, but alright. The sphere that had surrounded himself and the batgirl dropped out of sight, swept away on the wind.

He felt a mixture of exhilaration and pure exhaustion, the magic that had rushed into him more than making up for what he had expelled, but the effort of it all had been very tiring. He brushed his hair from his face with one hand, it lay uneven and out of place, the doctor’s hands were shaking. He picked his way lightly across the destruction that littered the street, twitching his cape closed around him. He went down to one knee beside the fallen villain, dredging up his once prodigious medical knowledge and placing two fingers to the side of the creature’s neck, careful to keep his energy to himself and consciously halting it from moving outward.

The heart beat was fast, fluttering, but he didn’t know if that was normal or not. He stood and looked around, a few policemen were moving, he beckoned to Batgirl, the cape held closed around him. He held a hand toward the creature that lay muttering on the ground, a thick scarlet ribbon flew outward, binding the creature from toes to shoulders like a mummy. “You, batgirl was it? Come here a moment.”

[Ayin & Sigma]

The villain was bound and unconscious, and Sigma was no longer a threat to those around him. Who knew for how long his current incapacitation would last, but for now the city was safe.

Slowly, his mutterings and slight movements eased and ceased entirely, and his body relaxed completely. He lay there on his side, bound and tied in scarlet. The injuries on his chest and the damage to his suit weren't obvious beneath the bindings. Though, should anyone remove the green and black mask from his face, the pale, drained look on his face would make his physical condition fairly obvious.

He was not well. Neither physically or mentally. Drained of his power, and now unconscious he was unable to recharge. Without the energy flowing through his body, he would be unable to strengthen his body, and was now no more than an ordinary man.

Interestingly, with the energy drained from his body, the consciousness of a man long trapped within the prison of his energy-fueled insanity was able to emerge.

Behind the mask, eyes opened, looking around in rapid, jerky movements. As the green energy that glowed behind those pupils died, his expression softened, the sneer and hatred left his face to be replaced by something entirely different - fear.

Dr. Erskine awoke, tied and bound on the shattered, burned and steaming asphalt, tied and bound in some ribbon and utterly confused.
The last few years of his life had been like a bad dream - an unending nightmare. Suppressed and trapped within a corner of his own mind, he had been powerless to act as he watched the darkness within him - Sigma - wreak havoc and destruction upon the world.

He coughed hard, and pain shot through him like a bolt of hot white. His chest hurt. His head hurt. He felt sick, terrible, terrified and ashamed.

"Wh-"

"W. . ."

"Wha-"

"What?" He croaked, his voice sounding hoarse and dry, and very pained.

""What have I done?" He asked himself out loud.

Get out of the way, weak fool. He'll kill you - let me out!

Somewhere, now trapped within the deepest, darkest recesses of Dr. Erskine's mind, Sigma was still there. As bitterly vengeful as ever, and still entirely insane.

[Dr. Strange]

Strange was looking around when he heard a voice issue from the mouth of the devilish beast. It was not the right voice though, it was quieter, not laced with the harsh sounds of raw power, laced instead with sadness and a little bit of somehow righteous anger. Strange glanced down, he had been coughing and the sorcerer wouldn’t surprised if he were in pain. He could have alleviated that, but it would have required slipping magic into his system, and Strange didn’t know what that would do to him in this state. It might help, or it might kill him, it was probably best not to try.

Strange knelt back down in the street, the ground was throwing off steam from the rain he had cast down to kill the fires and the heat Sigma and thrown out in his last little explosion. It soaked the knee of the doctor’s suit, it was warm as well, as though it might burn him if he remained in that position too long. He pulled his knees up, crouching instead, hands rested on knees, shaking very slightly from stress and exhaustion and the simple fact that their always shook.

“You just sent out a ball of energy with roughly the force of an atomic bomb. I managed to take part of it, my shields absorbed some, the damage was thankfully minimized.” He held out a hand, the ribbons loosened somewhat, no longer mummy’s bandaging, but still a safety measure, if the creature in front of him decided to jump at him the bindings should hold. But Strange now wondered precisely what was lying in front of him, what this creature was now. Or if, perhaps… “Dr. Erskine, that is you, not the creature?” He kept his grey eyes locked with Sigma’s, a solid gaze that looked as though he was trying to break through and peer into the beast’s soul. In a way he was.

[Ayin & Sigma]

"No. . . you don't understand. I saw it happen. . . I've been watching things. . . terrible things for years." Dr. Erskine swallowed hard, before another storm of coughing wracked his body. He physically shook within the bindings, and was beginning to feel the heat about him on his skin.

"It can't be real, can it? I'm still dreaming. . ." He muttered, breathing heavily. Jared relaxed again, lowering his head to the ground and rolling onto his back as he felt his bindings loosen.

Looking up, he could see the dark clouds that blotted out the afternoon sky, clustered above him, hanging there like some impending doom. Maybe the sky would just come crashing down on him - he deserved it, after all.

It was then that the old man leaning over him spoke again.

“Dr. Erskine, that is you, not the creature?”

He didn't know. Was it? He felt terrified, confused and completely alone. If this was real, he'd killed most of his close friends and colleagues. The anger and guilt he felt was so strong he could almost taste it. What was the point of anything now? Still, he supposed it couldn't hurt to answer the old man's question.

"I think so." Jared winced at another shot of pain.

"I wouldn't trust myself though, Sir." He turned his head to look up at the Dr. Everything he'd witnessed for the last few years had been a distorted blur, but this man's face was familiar.
He remembered what the old man had said about fighting Sigma. If he could and would fight the villainous madman within him, he was probably trustworthy.

"Take my mask off. . ." He coughed hard, again, "The catches are behind the jaw, and it turns off the suit." How did he know that? He wasn't sure, but it was probably a good idea. . . But the suit wasn't working now anyway. . . best not to take chances though. . .

[Dr. Strange]

“No dream, no.” Strange shook his head, watched as he rolled over, worried that lying on his back he might be sick and drown himself on accident. He was very worried about it, actually, it seemed rather silly to have gone through all of this to have him die in such a simple way. But he wouldn’t turn him, Strange remained crouched, watching the man stare into the sky, nodding slightly when he said he didn’t know.

Strange had intended to give the man to SHIELD, let them keep him in their holding facilities where he wouldn’t hurt anyone, now, however, he wasn’t sure. It was perfectly fine to give criminals away to that over-powered police force, but this man was not in full control of himself, the part that was himself seemed remorseful. He didn’t want to just give him away to those psychopaths. He reached back, still consciously aware of stopping the flow of magic that leached into the air around him at all times. It was so strange, not to keep it free, exchanging in the air, floating out and drawn back without consciousness of the fact. It had been so long since he’d had to mask it he’d forgotten how strange it felt.

The clasps came off, the mask fell away and Strange rocked back onto his heels, arms crossed over his knees again, his cape lying in a puddle but not wet, perfectly alright. “What caused this monstrosity, Dr. Erskine? How may I help to remove it? Do you know?” His voice was quiet, the air flickered with steam and a magical circle around them, stopping the police or any curious passersby coming too close.

[Ayin & Sigma]

So it wasn't a dream? But that was just what a character in a nightmare would say, wasn't it? Probably not.

The unfortunate revelation the old man had just handed to him was a heart-breaking thought. He really had killed all those people hadn't he? He had destroyed homes, lives, families, property. . . the list was too long to think about, and fortunately the specific events no more than the hazy memory of a bad film.

The terror and shame of it all, that though, was a clear and sharp as a crystal knife. He might have finally cut through the chains that had bound him for so long, but not on his own, and not without help.
He would need this man if he was going to survive, and to keep Sigma locked away in the depths of his mind.

Dr. Erskine could never make things right again. You couldn't apologize to the hundreds of people you'd brutally murdered and the thousands of grieving relatives. You couldn't just pave over the destruction he had wrought. . .

But he had to keep on living, and he could at least try. Perhaps this was the time and place to start.

"How did this happen? You know," Jared smiled painfully, "I think I blew myself up. Failed experiment - or a completely successful one, I forget what I was doing. . . energy manipulation research of some kind. . ." His mind began to wander, even as he croaked his answer to the old man's question.

How did he know his real name? Did it matter? Who was this old man? It didn't seem right to think of his savior in such a demeaning way. . .

"As for how to remove it. . . I was his prisoner for a long time, and never gained much knowledge or control of him. I'd tell you if I could, but I fear you're far more likely to know than I do." Jared felt suddenly sick again, turning and dry retching onto the hot asphalt beside him.

The bile lay there, steaming on the ground next to his head. It stank worse than you'd expect, and almost looked green - though you would, if you had much biological knowledge, expect yellow.
Dr. Erskine couldn't, for the life of him, ever remember Sigma eating. . . Could he create mass himself? Oh the potential!
He stopped himself short of freeing his powers to experiment. Sigma was linked to that power, and freeing it would free him. That was something Jared was less than keen to do.

"I'm sorry Sir, I can't say as I know your name. I am, as you seem to know, Dr. Jared Erskine. Pleased to meet you, though I doubt the feeling is mutual." Jared risked another painful smile as he looked around at the destruction he had caused - Sigma had caused.

He wondered just how separate the two of him really were.

[Dr. Strange]

Strange listened to every word that came out of the man’s mouth, memorizing it, storing it away for future use. He wanted to make sure he knew it, in case it became important, in case some part of it was actually useful. A brief flickering of people who understood the sorts of science that might have caused the doctor’s transformation ran through Strange’s mind. There were the other Illuminati first, he considered contacting Reed Richards, not immediately, not right now, but Richards understood rather more regarding science than he did, Strange had lost a few years when it came to that.

“So it is both of you in there now…” It was not a question, he was studying the man’s face, stepping backward as the strange green bile came out. He stood, brushed off his clothes, dark patches on the knees where the water had soaked through. “I will find a way to deal with him, I promise you.” He inclined his head, almost a bow, and glanced around, looking through the shields he had placed up at the people who milled around, the people who were staring or trying to take pictures.

Strange crouched back down, waved a hand to remove the bindings altogether. They were no longer necessary. “I am Dr. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. And believe me, I would much rather meet you than the creature that also resides in your mind.” He smiled slightly, reached down, and extended a hand to help Erskine up. “I can take you to a place where I believe he won’t be able to get out without causing himself extreme pain. Perhaps there is a way we can lock him away permanently, or even separate him. If that is something that you want.”

[Ayin & Sigma]

Jared was lying flat on the hot tarmac surface of the road, and whilst his eyes were closed, he felt the bindings around his body loosen. His arms and legs came free, relaxed, and fell loosely to the ground.
Freeing him might not have been the best idea, but then again, perhaps it was just down to the fact that Jared had been a prisoner in his own mind for so long, he almost expected to be one in reality as well.

The old man had introduced himself as Dr. Stephen Strange. It was a name he recognized - barely. A name from a lifetime ago, when he had been no more than an over-ambitious scientist with a thirst for knowledge and a desire to prove himself. Jared didn't think he could claim to be that same person any longer.

"Well, Stephen. . . Mind if I call you that?" Jared flexed his aching limbs, before taking the sorcerer's hand. "I don't know who or what Sigma is, and I'm not entirely sure who or what I am." As he finished talking, Jared realized he had been hauled to his feet. The old sorcerer was deceptively strong for a man of his age.

Jared staggered briefly, before extending a hand and grasping Dr. Strange's arm for balance.

"I hope you can help me." Jared paused briefly, looking around at the the cluster of confused and angry looking officers and civilians. "Do you honestly think I deserve your help, though?"