As I dived into the ice cold, mine infested waters that surrounded the fortress where my first target lived, only one thought was in my mind. Nothing about the freezing water or danger of the explosives, but rather the one thing that made me leapt into such dangerous waters in the first place.

'Only the guilty deserve the scythe. The innocent provide no challenge, no honor, and no pleasure. Death only comes for the monsters, and you shall be Death's hand.'

That's the Cooper Code. My family code. I come from a long line of great assassins and killers that right many wrongs in the world.

And I'm the last one.

As a kid, I witnessed my father and our family log the Cooper Codex get torn to shreds by five monsters out of greed and jealousy. I held our family scythe, ready to strike and take my first life, but the cold eyes of one of the monsters looked straight into my soul, and I froze. Yet, he left with his section of the Codex, leaving me to cry over the mess that was my father.

My mother had no interest in the family business, and long since abandoned us. So I lived the rest of my shattered childhood in an old orphanage. Other children and parents tried to get close to me, but I shoved them aside for the true goal of revenge.

That's kept me moving the entire time. Revenge. Revenge against those monsters. I spent entire days and nights plotting; learning about my enemies so I can deliver the most pain to them before I take their lives to Hades. Even without the Codex to teach me the techniques that the clan had perfected, I still created my own craft and practiced on the criminals of the city.

So I decided to become a officer of the law. While they protect the lives of the guilty unless decided in the court of law, they had superior information than what I could find on my own. Thankfully, my orphanage got visited by a cop family looking for a boy to entertain their daughter.

I made a good impression.

As Constable Sylvester Fox, I had access to criminal files, could do interviews, and many other things that allowed me to jump entire gaps in my own personal assignment. I got my first break. Sir Raleigh matched the description of my father's killers. After managing to get a month's vacation, I made my way to his last known location.

The excitement must be getting to me. I'm starting to remember how I get here. It's only natural. After fifteen years, I'm ready.

As I lifted my head out of the water, I took a good look around. Guards with guns and flashlights, patrolling around. If they were trusted enough to hold guns, they were on his payroll. And the police file not only mentioned Raleigh as a inventor but also a pirate. These men have decided their fate.

As I took a guard with a radio into a dark corner, I recalled my first kill. Some drunk who just killed a poor lady and escaped in the confusion. At that point, I was still weak, and held the family scythe with both hands. The fight was clumsy, with me barely swinging it and him falling on his ass all the time.

But both the guard with the radio and the drunk ended the same way. Choking on their own blood as it stained the ground.

As I walked through the shadows, I messed with the radio to receive transmissions. Now let's see if there's anything worth while on…

"Check." Came the froggy voice of Raleigh. As a frog, it only sounded natural.

"Mansion check."

"Grounds check." I spoke, trying my best to sound like the guy before he died.

"Factory check." Nobody questioned me. I was in the clear. Just got to keep the radio on this channel and listen for the next check

"Shipyard check."

"Hold on…"

"Hold on?" Raleigh sounded annoyed. "What's wrong at the lab?"

"That turtle blew up another chemistry set."

"I swear, I should just kill him and feed him to the dogs." Raleigh then sighed before resuming his usual calm demeanor. "Lock him up. 8-hours. No food, no water. And for god's sake, don't even give him a toothpick. Just let Seth's unfortunate accident remind you why not!" And with the crackle, silence came over the radio.

I didn't know where Raleigh was, and I didn't care much for saving the turtle. After all, my plan is to make frog legs and ditch the place before the cops swarm in. If I know my partner, she's on her way right now.

On the other hand…this turtle clearly doesn't want to be here. Maybe he knows something.

Despite the place looking like it got built with whatever was within arm's reach, the security is actually up to date. Cameras, sentry guns hidden in objects, laser tripwires, I almost broke a sweat as I stepped over them.

To find where the turtle is, I had to first the lab. Thank god Raleigh placed signs all over the place. Guess he trusted his men enough to use guns, but not enough to find their way through their own base. Go figure.

Thankfully, finding the turtle's cell was easy as slitting someone's throat after asking where the turtle was. Swinging the ring of keys around my finger, I calmly strolled down the hallway to the cell. It seemed silly, but again, the excitement was getting to me. I felt giddy. Nobody could stop me.

I heard someone jump as I entered the key into the lock. As I slowly opened the door, I paid attention to the surrounding of the cell, to make sure that wasn't a trap or that the turtle wasn't planning on his own escape. I would have preferred to be taken down before killing my first target than being taken down by a nerd.

"W-who are-e y-ou-u?" Stuttered out the turtle. He wore a snazzy bowtie and clown-size glasses. If he had hair, he could use those glasses to help him comb.

"Somebody who needs some information." I replied bitterly. "Would you know where Raleigh tends to hide out?"

"L-loook…" His voice was starting to grate on me, and he only said four words to me.

"Where?" I shouted.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

I groaned as I lifted him off his feet. "I don't have time to play this game. So let me rephrase it. What's the best place for Raleigh to hide out in?"

"Well…" A nervous smile came to his face. "…did you see that giant blimp outside?"

"Raleigh is a inventor." I sighed as I dropped him. "And not just a inventor, he designed several weapons for one of history's worst criminal organizations."

"The Fiendish Five?"

"Yes…" I closed the door behind me. "Raleigh is smart. He wouldn't be dumb enough to hide out in something that noticeable and could be easily shot down." I showed him my scythe, which made him jump back in fear. "In fact, just scratching it with this will pop it like a cheap balloon."

"Actually…" He held his finger up. "Blimps are made with sterner material that prevents it from popped from something sharp…"

"Something sharp?" Anger overtook me, and I flicked the scythe, tearing a gash into the metal wall without even trying. "This is made out of a ancient metal found in only one place in the entire place, and that!" I pointed at the gash. "That is only a beginner's demonstration."

His Adam's Apple bobbed. "Actually…I made the blimp into a weather machine."

"That would explain the constant rain fall around the area…" I showed him the stolen radio. "…I overhead something about a shipyard. I know he's a pirate, but why you're your own boats in danger? Unless Raleigh doesn't care for his employees."

"Those ships are actually stolen. He creates terrible weather to wreck ships and has them recovered for the loot and as trophies."

I thought for a moment. "Does he have a tattered page in his possession?" I then asked.

"…Yeah…he proclaims it to be useless to him, and yet holds onto it like a family heirloom."

"It is a family heirloom…" I closed my eyes, recalling. I remember Raleigh throwing a bear trap at my father's leg. "…mine."

"…he keeps it on the blimp. If you want on, climb up the mooring line near the portside."

"Thank you." I opened the door, peeked out to see if any guards came down to check up on things, and started to head out. "Wait two minutes and head out. I will clear the way for you. Once you get out of this building, head over to the docks and catch a boat. The police will be coming soon, so make sure to put a white flag up."

"Wait!" He shouted. I was running out of patience, and it wouldn't be long before I would be discovered. Slamming the door shut, I carved my way out of the lab, giving the turtle a chance.

It was a long climb up, but my prizes were waiting for me.

Raleigh looked down right angry, and tuning some sort of shock pistol. The Codex page laid behind bars alive with electricity, with all of the wonderful stolen secrets ready to be freed.

"Oh." He put down the pistol. "For a minute, I thought the intruder killing my men was something dangerous. It's just a baby."

"Perhaps this will change your mind." I again displayed my scythe, letting it shine.

"…Oh great." Raleigh sighed. "Not only a baby, but a COOPER baby. I knew you're going to be a headache, but…oh no, 'Raleigh the genius is being stupid again.'" His accent went from being somewhat English into a bad Bronx accent. " 'We got what we came here for, let's beat it!'" He growled. "I knew keeping the master assassin's son alive was stupid!"

"You took the words out of my mouth." I titled my scythe as to cut him in half. He laughed. If he thought he was fast enough to grab the gun and get a shot off, the last thing that will go through his head would be how wrong he is. I gave off a nasty glare. He just laughed harder.

"Oh Cooper!" He got in between laughs. "This blimp is filled with my toughest guards! They could shoot you from a entire country away! And this blimp is pretty open."

"I could remove your neck before you could even say a single word."

"And there's your problems!" He finished his laughter. "You've been waiting nearly two decades to kill me, and you decided that a few more minutes wouldn't hurt!" He pulled out of his oversized top hat a cigar and a lighter and promptly got to smoking. Out of all the people in the world who knew the power of the Cooper clan, he seemed rather calm as Death stood right in front of him. "Unless…you need to know something."

I remained silent.

"Why did we kill your dad and leave you alive? Is that the reason why you haven't killed me yet? Surely, the answer must be obvious!"

"I don't think jealousy spared me." I replied.

"True." He patted some loose ash off his cigar. "But…the thing is…I don't know."

"You would lie to the reaper?" I roared.

"Not my call." He threw the cigar out the window. Great. I can now add littering to his sheet. "The funny thing is, we weren't supposed to kill your dad. Just steal the book. The guy who brought us together wanted to prove something. I didn't care."

"You didn't care that you would have a part of the greatest book on how to kill?"

"Oh please." He seemed…offended. "Killing is just killing. Its not that special. Shoot someone in the head. Poison the water. Stab someone in the heart. Drop them off the side of the Eiffel Tower. Your family just made it out to be akin to Shakespeare, yet all they did was write in purple prose. You see, I just wanted to kill someone famous, that's all."

My muscles tensed. While the scythe blade couldn't be broken by anything except by the same type of metal, but I have broken wood tougher than the shaft.

"Oh…speaking of killing." He resumed being smug. "You do have a second problem." He spread his arms out. "I don't have a neck for which you can remove."

Now, my turn to smile. "True. But here's something about killing you don't know about."

He seemed to be lost. "Son, I lived twice as long as you, and probably killed more people in one day than you have in your entire career. So, yeah, tell me. What is it that I don't know?"

"Us Coopers each have their own scythes, but…" I tapped my finger on an invisible desk, a motion tick I had. "…we do have a sense of humor. In fact, from what I remember, there's this passage that follows the motto."

"…fairly certain Panda King took the first part, but okay."

"The righteous death is not by the flick of the scythe, but by the unknowing hands of the guilty themselves."

"Sorry." Again, Raleigh was lost. "I'm not good with metaphors."

"Simple." I slapped on a thick glove onto my right hand. "Irony."

And with a motion quicker than the wind created by his storm machine, I slammed him into the electric cage, with me protected by the insulated glove. He screamed, the only thing he could as millions of volts surged through his body. He continued to scream and thrash around as his body slowly started to die.

I just pressed him further. Leave some marks. Closed caskets funerals are always more poetic.

My escape proved to be tougher than I thought. After dumping the well-done carcass over the side and retrieving the notes of my ninja assassin ancestor Riochi, I heard the well-known wail of police sirens.

A little early, Carmelita.

The waters were still choppy from the recent use of the weather machine, and my boat laid beyond the police lines. And I left my vacation outfit back on said boat, so no way to sneak past.

"Hey! Coon!"

The radio buzzed. The turtle must have picked up a radio from a dead guard. Now what?

"Down here!"

Looking over the platform, I saw that one of the mooring lines had been pulled out and now lead down to a boat. With a deep breath, I jumped over the side and slid down the rope. As I approached the boat below, I saw that the turtle had somehow obtained a police uniform of his size.

"Are these yours?" He asked, showing my suitcase with my tacky vacation clothes, all soaked from all the rain.

"Yeah, thanks." I took the clothes and quickly started to get dressed. As I did that, he revved the boat up and headed out. "Where are you taking me?"

"A secret port in the mainland. I figured you would like that."

"Again, my thanks."

"No need, you saved my life back there!" He said all happy-like. "Hold on, police craft. Hide your clothes!" I quickly shoved my assassin cloak into the case and kicked it into the hold.

"Hey!" Shouted the pig cop from another boat. "Is that one of the refugees?"

"Yeah!" The turtle shouted back.

"Take him to Point A67!" The cop shouted before he took off to the island.

"That was surprisingly easy." The turtle remarked, full with pride. "We'll make a great team."

"Woah there." I warned him with a finger point. "I work alone. Thank you for getting me out of there, but I don't need a anchor."

"Why not?"

"…I just told you, you're a anchor." I raised the tone of harshness in my voice to make the point clear. "I'm a assassin after some people who stole something important from my family years ago. I work with stealth and killing. Your talents involve science, and the only science that matters to me is autonomy."

The turtle staid quiet for a short bit, but he talked without even a slight ting in his voice. "…can I presume that your next target is Muggshot, the notorious bank robber, right?"

"Yes." I sighed. "But first, I need to find him."

"Mesa City."

"Pardon?"

"Muggshot operates in Mesa City, where he runs a casino." Now it became the turtle's turn to be the intimidating. "But not just the casino, but he owns the entire lands around the building. And he has the entire area filled with the latest and greatest security measures that makes the government's security look like tin cans on fishing line."

I felt anxious. The obvious way into Raleigh's base was through the water, but if Muggshot had that level of power…I guess I would some help.

"State your name and expertise." I stated.

"Oh! I'm Bentley, and I work with all electronics…including weapons and defenses."

"What do you wish to gain from this line of work?"

"The excitement of it all, and finding a opponent worth fighting."

"You could be killed at any moment. My enemies are cold-blooded killers, and will stoop to low levels to win."

Bentley took a moment to decide his answer. "…your enemies are now enemies."

"…my name is…" The dark clouds parted, and the sun shone through to return the sky.

" Sly. Sly Cooper."