The Game is Afoot

Decades have passed since Sherlock first started to chase after ideas in order to find an escape route. But here lies the problem, since he couldn't maneuver the time machine he could only wait to find the idea that was going in the same direction that the machine was floating towards.

During this time, however, he wasn't idle. He was constantly studying the ideas around him, gathering information about the many different realities and their inhabitants as they were being created.

And boy did he see many realities each rife with its own unique flavor. A reality where everything was pumpkins? Of course, there is one. A reality where there are super-powered beings? Obviously. He also saw many characters heavily inspired by himself, like that guy who dressed like a bat, another one who traveled through space-time in a phone booth, a conman magician who fought demons, and many others.

He also saw many versions of the reality where Deadpool comes from. One with zombies all over, one where everyone was a female, one where everyone was villainous, and the likes. (A/N: He isn't watching the entire stories here, he is just glancing at the ideas of those stories and characters.)

Sherlock knew that he needed powers beyond humans to escape reality. And powers he could obtain only in certain realities. After gathering information for so long, although he didn't know the details, he understood the dangers of these 'powered' realities. There were beings whose mere thoughts could wipe him out of existence. But he would not back down. He had to find a way.

Just as he was thinking, his chance to escape the ideaverse finally appeared. Right in front of the machine, an idea appeared. This idea was something he had seen countless times already in various forms. It was the idea of Ironman. Except this one was more grounded, more 'real' than most others.

But it was perfect for Holmes. He knew that Tony Stark had many inspirations from himself, being a genius inventor with unparalleled intellect. If he could find a way to join forces with the guy, maybe he could come up with some device to find the 'real' reality.

"Wait for me dear Author. I will eventually reach the reality from where you're peeking at me!" Holmes exclaimed in excitement. He could still feel the heavy gazes and that barrier that separated them. He could even feel the increasing intensity of the gazes as if….."Hmm… the readers are slowly increasing huh. Well, it is within my expectation for now."

As Holmes was thinking to himself, studying the idea ahead of him and those that passed by, few more years passed, not that it mattered to Sherlock as he had come to terms with the lack of time in this dimension by now.

Eventually, the idea he had been chasing stopped a little ahead of him and started to slowly phase out from there like it was passing through a wall. And this was the cue for Holmes to begin phase two of his plan.

Holmes had theorized that if ideas could pass through a certain location in the ideaverse then those must be the connection points between the realities and the ideaverse. And if, he could just blow a hole in that location then voila, you have a makeshift door.

And that's just what he did. He had already taken out the energy cores from the time machine and tied them all up in a pile all except one. Then he threw the pile right where the idea was phasing out. And at the precise moment when the idea was done phasing, Holmes had been prepared with the restarted reactor of the time machine along with the last energy core.

Due to the lack of enough energy core, the only energy core that was restarted was starting to burn out and on the verge of explosion. And so Holmes quickly threw the whole apparatus at the energy core pile and jumped to hide behind the time machine.

As expected, a huge explosion with a bluish-white flash happened and flung the machine along with Holmes who tightly clung to it like a baby Koala. But just when they had flown for a few meters, they were sucked back in along with all the flashes of light and everything around them.

Holmes only managed to make out a deep dark void with tiny specks of light scattered throughout, as he was spinning while falling along with the machine. As he was falling he could also feel the energy of the explosion as well as the energy from the ideaverse tightly wrapping around himself and the machine. They were in a sense, mixing together like going through a blender. There was no pain per se but Holmes could feel himself literally blending with everything close to him.

The last thing Holmes saw as he was experiencing this new feeling was the crack in the ideaverse that he made quickly repairing itself as some other ideas were being sucked into the void. As he was passing out from all the stimulus…. "He spoke as he winked… Come, my dear Author, come. The game is afoot!"