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Normally, if someone wanted to enter and then navigate an entire city like Penrose, you would roll up in a heavily tinted car, and drive at the speed limit. Getting by on foot would be impossible, especially if someone was out looking for you. For a magical girl, however, such a feat was child's play, to say nothing of one who commanded darkness.

Street lamps along a nameless street seemed as if to have their souls snuffed out, light dimming even as the bulbs themselves remained healthy. The rolling blackness progressed slowly... a walking pace. Within the blackness, it was difficult to see anyone hidden within -only the dim lights from inside homes was able to reach the sidewalks, shining upon the casual gait of two young women as they walked along.

Valentine Achill and Annabelle Murgang had only just arrived in Penrose for the first time, entering by foot from the outskirts to take a stroll for their destination. Valentine darkened the streets as they went, obscuring their forms from curious eyes, even if anyone thought it worthwhile to venture out from their homes to inspect the peculiar event as it passed their windows by.

Though they were new to the city, their business was not. As part of NEXT, their organization had already snaked its way into the city walls long before them. Tux, a magical girl known for her disguises, was to be their contact in Penrose, and their ultimate mission the subterfuge of a certain monolithic presence within the city. Under the loud and distracting cover of a dark rave, they had little to worry about in regards to being accosted, but it didn't hurt to keep out of sight.

"How much you wanna bet she won't appear to us as her normal self?" Valentine asked, eyes trained on the large revolver she lazily spun around a finger. She had her hood up, drawing long red hair over one shoulder to hang over her chest. Though their surroundings were utter black, she maintained a small sphere of dim light just around her, so that at least her accompanying teammate could see where she was stepping.

The girl beside Valentine, a certain Annabelle Murgang, was dressed to the nines in her magical girl outfit, sporting a long, elegant and elaborate red dress embroidered to high heaven with precious metals and gems. A large sword rested on the exposed skin of her right shoulder. The raven-haired girl hummed, tilting her head ponderously.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I'm hopeful that, being teammates, we'll get her real face, because that's the courtesy?" Annabelle responded with a light smile. Valentine's gun spinning came to a halt, landing the handle in a sudden grip around her fingers.

"You don't think that being a spy-type means she's got her own goals in the background, and she's duping everyone, even Big Sis?" Valentine grinned.

"We should refrain from losing trust in Tux before we've even met," Annabelle responded.

"Yea whatever." Valentine lifted her other hand, angling the screen of a cellphone to her eyes. Shifting on the LCD screen was an active GPS map, pointing them down the street towards an otherwise nondescript building. At a mere few dozen yards away, Valentine began looking for a hole in the wall to duck inside before dropping her shadowy cover. Sliding through a narrow alley between two buildings, Annabelle followed, and over several seconds, the streetlights began to return to life.

The two magical girls used the alleyway to obscure their quick jump onto the roof of the building at their side. Leaping up, they were met with a suddenly grandiose view of Penrose's taller inner city miles away. The twinkling of the entire city illuminated the rooftop in a dim blue glow, and it was here that they were to meet their third, and begin the mission.