Ekobean: Ok, I mostly like doing Jak fics, but I thought I'd try my hand at a Sly Cooper fic. Tell me what u think.

Midnight Flight Chapter 1

The raccoon could see several lights turning about, guarding the daimyo's palace. Fifty feet above the ground all of them seemed to be stars upon the ground. The raccoon knew that one slip-up here would mean certain doom for him, and the Cooper legacy would end tragically.

There was no way to enter from the bottom, the raccoon knew this. There was only one way in, and the Cooper was standing in front of it. A thin cable leading from this building to the sixth level of the daimyo's nine-level palace. It would only figure that daimyo Shin Masaiya would be at the very top of a ninety-foot palace.

It was now time to test his new ability, the one he had perfected merely a day ago. The Ninja Spire Jump.

Every ten feet on the cable was a burning oil lamp. The raccoon could smell the fumes rising from them. Floating almost lazily upon the tops of the lamps were the sparkling blue auras that marked for a Master Thief any thieving opportunity. This proved to the raccoon that his Spire Jump was possible. Yet even as he launched himself upon the first of the lamps, he felt his stomach turn as he shakily landed upon the top.

The cable wiggled dangerously, shaking the oil lamps ever so slightly. But even this would be enough to alert the guards below. The raccoon crouched, wrapping himself in his black Ninja cloak. Hopefully he would appear to be nothing more than a part of the night sky. The guards' lights below halted for a moment. He could see their silhouettes looking upward for any intruder. After about a minute they continued their patrol unhindered.

The raccoon sighed with relief and quickly Spire Jumped from one lamp to the other. After five minutes of non-stop Spire Jumping he reached safety on the balcony of a locked window. In one fluid motion he vaulted over the cedar railing and ran to the locked windows. A large golden lock was placed upon the latch.

The raccoon snorted and drew his dual canes. Both had been in his family all the way back to the stone age. True they had been perfected, smoothed out, and improved. But they were still fashioned by cave men. The handles were of polished rock, and the "blades" an even more carefully polished gold. The flickering flames of the Japanese oil lamps behind him were reflected upon the polished gold. The raccoon quickly angled his body so that the gold blades were in his shadow. Even the slightest reflection could set off an alert in such a tightly guarded area.

He walked up to the lock and strung the blades around the bolt of the lock, and in one swift pull on both canes, broke it. He entered silently, landing catlike upon the clean rug of the bed chamber he found himself in. From here on, Rioichi Cooper knew that he was in the claws of his enemy.