Invincible

"And so, I present to you…an invincible Arwing!"

Fox watched on as Slippy pulled back a sheet draped over the mystery craft in the Great Fox's hanger, revealing…an Arwing. An ordinarily sized, ordinarily shaped Arwing that looked no different from the other four present.

"Well?" the frog asked.

Fox stuck his hands in his pockets. Despite everything, he liked Slippy, if only because the frog was the one thing keeping his Arwing still flying. But he was also aware that Falco was standing beside him, looking like he'd just laid an egg, only to watch that egg be trod on by a Venomian. That some kind of crime against the natural order had been committed. Twice.

"What do you think?"

"Slippy," Fox began. "An invincible Arwing is…well…"

"Impossible?" the frog asked. "Yeah, that's what I thought too. But a tweaking of code here…"

What would tweaking code have to do with anything?

"A bit of God mode there…"

The heck?

"And voila, an invincible Arwing," Slippy declared. He let out a laugh. "Don't worry, I've tried it. Lasers, missiles, smart bombs…nothing can take this baby down."

Fox looked on, desperately trying to think of an excuse of not having to verify that the Arwing could take being hit by a smart bomb with him inside. Or rather, trying to avoid flying the damn ship at all. Because if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was, and this…this wasn't something that sounded too good to be true, this just sounded insane.

"You want to give it a spin?"

Fox glanced at Falco once more, for the first, and hopefully only time in his life, actually seeking help from his fellow pilot. But none was forthcoming. The 'egg face' had gone, now replaced with 'I'm a bird of prey looking at a dead animal' face.

Well, we're both carnivores here. Maybe that's why Peppy took some RnR.

"Fox?"

"Um, Slippy," Fox began. "I appreciate the effort, I really do…"

"Thanks! It took a lot of effort!"

"But, well, some things just…aren't that good in practice as they are on paper." He let out a sigh. "Remember when you replaced our joysticks with that weird motion control system?"

"Hey, motion controls are the future!"

"And remember before that when you tried to get us to hold those joysticks with power gloves?"

"Okay, okay, I admit that the power glove idea was bad," Slippy said. "But-"

"And before that when you equipped our HUD with the virtual boy system? And before that when you-"

"So I made some mistakes," Slippy said. He looked at Falco. "Come on Falco, back me up. You're the best pilot on this team. You can appreciate the worth of an invincible Arwing.

Fox screwed up his left hand into his fist, and found his right on his blaster. He was the leader of Star Fox. He'd saved Slippy more times than he could count. He'd put up with everything from power gloves to the Landmaster nearly falling onto him. But Slippy calling Falco the better pilot than him? That just couldn't stand.

"Well, Slip," Falco said. He stepped forward, winking at Fox. "You're right about one thing. I am the best pilot on the team."

That's not what you said in the simulator last week jackass.

"But an invincible Arwing?" Falco asked. "Nah. Doesn't work."

"But, but, I tested it." Slippy looked close to tears, and for a moment, Fox forgot about Slippy's poor judgement about the pilot skill dynamic of Star Fox. "I put all this work into the ship, and-"

"Slippy, I believe you," Falco said. "I can totally buy this ship being invincible."

What?

"But I can't fly it, y'see?" He patted the frog on the shoulder. "If I fly an invincible Arwing, what will people think? They'll say, 'Falco's gone soft. Falco's afraid.' They'll ask why the best pilot on the Star Fox team is using a ship that can't be shot down."

Simulator. 2200 hours. I'll show you just-

"Now, Fox, on the other hand," continued Falco, "needs all the help he can get."

"What?!"

"I mean, last time we used the simulator, well, did you see his barrel rolls? His loops? Jeez, I've never seen such crummy flying."

"Falco, I kicked your arse."

"Only newbies do barrel rolls Fox," Falco smirked. "Real pilots dodge the laser fire rather than letting it bounce off them."

Fox smiled, making a point to show all his teeth. Reminding Falco that foxes were higher on the Cornerian food chain than falcons ever would be. "You're right Falco, I do need some help. That's why I'll take the ship."

"Yippee!" exclaimed Slippy. "Thanks Fox, you-"

"I'm going to take it, so when I corner your ship in some dark, desolate corner of space, you'll be able to do absolutely nothing to me while I reduce your Arwing into space junk."

"First you gotta catch me Fox."

"Simulator," Fox said. "2200 hours." He held out a hand. Without hesitation, Falco grabbed it. Hard.

"You're on Foxie."

Very hard.

Slippy looked like he wanted to say something. But that was only out of the corner of Fox's eye. All his thoughts were on what was to come. Falco. Whispers about Venom. The idea of an invincible Arwing. And the thought that Slippy himself should use it so he didn't have to keep saving the frog's slimy rear.

"See ya there."

And that if he was ever to get Falco's respect, he'd have to ignore Peppy's advice and not do so many barrel rolls.

A/N

So it turns out there's an invincible mode in Star Fox Zero. Now, disclosure that I don't have a WiiU, so this can't affect me directly (the release date of the game notwithstanding), but I can't help but feel bugged by this. As in, the ability to just beat a game from the outset and not have any risk of failure. On the other hand, I do admit this is highly illogical - invincible cheats were present in games way back in the day, and if harder difficulties are provided, then it isn't really a problem for those who don't use the mode.

That said, perfectly willing to have fun at its expense. ;)

Update (27/05/16): Corrected spelling error.