"That is a slightly more complicated question and I am not qualified to answer," the woman said. "Once we get back to town I'll take you to the professor there, and he'll teach you what you need to know."

Faye processed that for a second.

"This is a really weird place," she said after a moment. She didn't even want to ask how someone could be underqualified in explaining where they were. That just didn't make sense to her. She glanced at Rei.

Rei shrugged, looking puzzled, but followed the woman nonetheless.

"Alright, here we are," the woman said a few hours later as they approached the town. "I'll show you to the professor and then I've got to be on my way."

The guard stopped them all as they approached the gate.

"Dexes?" he asked, glancing at the three of them. Faye just looked from their guide to the guard helplessly.

"Newbies," the woman said as she handed over her dex. "They got dropped off the path, I'm taking them over to see the professor now." Clearly this wasn't the first time she'd encountered newbies on the road.

The guard nodded and, once her dex was verified, waved them all through.

"Good luck," he said to the two newbies.

Rei blinked a few times and had just enough time to notice other people walking around (and oh gods one of them looked like Spock from Star Trek) before she and Faye were herded into a building.

"Professor?" the woman called, looking around. "I've got a few newbs here to hand off to you."

Faye did a few double-takes as she followed along. She didn't see the Spock look-alike, but she was certain she'd seen someone dressed an awful lot like Seto Kaiba, and holy shit that was a fantastic InuYasha outfit. Then she was ushered into the building as well.

"Back so soon?" the professor asked, coming out of a back room. "You just brought me a new arrival just last week, didn't you?"

"Yup. This time it's a pair. At least they're not fourteen and shrieking." The woman grinned briefly. "And maybe eventually if I stop running into people I get those plants you wanted."

Rei blinked a few times, looking totally stunned and lost.

The professor smiled a bit, amused.

"Well, then, let me take these two off your hands, Karen," he said. "You can get back to your plans now."

"Thanks, professor. I'll see you later." Karen grinned briefly before leaving.

"What just happened?" Rei blinked a few times.

"Please, sit down," the professor said to the girls, gesturing to a cluster of seats. "I'm sure you're both horribly confused, so I'll do my best to explain everything properly."

At that moment, a few crashes sounded from the back room, followed by very familiar swearing and muttering. Rei paused at the sound of that swearing.

"Why does that sound like Robert Downey Jr. swearing in the back?"

Faye blinked.

"It does sound like RDJ," she replied, blinking. "What kind of place is this?"

The professor just sighed a bit. "Please excuse me, I'll be right back..." Turning, he headed towards a room a bit further down the hall. "Tony! Tony, what did I tell you? Tony-- Where's Bruce? He's supposed to be keeping an eye on you!" He opened the door and promptly had to wave off a bit of smoke that wafted out. "Honestly..."

"Bruce is out back," Tony yelled back, grinning as he poked his head out, his face covered in soot but his goatee and mustache still impeccable. "He said he'd check on me in a bit."

Then he looked past the professor and his grin widened to shark proportions. "You have company! You didn't tell me!"

"For entirely legitimate reasons," the professor replied. He glanced at the girls and sighed. "Now look, you've rendered them completely speechless. Poor things are probably in shock."

Faye really was just staring and gaping a bit. Her brain kind of shorted out.

Tony positively cackled and vanished back into the workshop to clear out some of the smoke.

Rei stared after him, her eyes huge. She was having a very similar reaction to Faye.

The professor just rolled his eyes and closed the door again.

"I had hoped to ease you into things more gently," he said, going back over to the girls. He looked at them. "I'll start from the beginning. You both got a link in an email, correct? And opening the link suddenly transported you somewhere else?"

"Right," Rei said cautiously. "We were dropped on the side of the road outside town." She blinked at the closed door.

The professor nodded.

"That's the first step," he said. He paused for a moment. "This will seem like a somewhat random, useless question, but humor me. You're both familiar with Pokemon, correct?"

Faye nodded cautiously.

"We grew up in the 90's, of course we are." Rei was glad to hear that she at least still had a sense of humor.

"Good, that makes this easier," the professor said. "You're now in a world very similar, mechanically, to Pokemon. Except, instead of evolving monsters, there are bishounen instead. Anime characters, book and movie characters, beings of that nature. Much like my Tony Stark, whom you've already seen. You're both here to get the new trainer orientation, so you can go out and catch bishounen of your own." He paused for a moment. "It sounds insane, but I promise you it's all real."

"Yeah, I'm still betting on an elaborate hallucination," Rei said frankly. "Maybe if this is real it'll set in in a few days." Because really none of this should be possible.

"Most new arrivals think something similar, at first," the professor said, nodding a bit. "In the meantime, I do still need to set you up with a starter kit and everything."

"Starter kit?" Faye asked.

"Your belt, bishiballs, dex, things of that nature," the professor replied. "Things you'll need as a trainer."

"Newbie care kit. Lovely." Rei sighed. "So you called them... bishounen? Is that right? How similar is this to Pokémon exactly?"