A rather out-of-place vehicle, a JLTV painted in woodland camo, pulled into the parking lot of an industrial district bowling alley. It was just about too narrow of a lot for a large military vehicle to fit, the wheels all but rolling right along the lines of the space it pulled into. Thankfully it was a reserved space, as were the two on either side of it, courtesy of the bowling alley's owner. They weren't the only ones who had any; there were labeled spots for ZPD officers, fire fighters, EMTs and paramedics, trash workers, steel mill and brass factory workers, and some else. Said reserved spaces didn't occupy more than half of the lot, but even if they exceeded the legal allowance somehow, it still wouldn't really have caused any problem with availability. The combination of both being in the industrial district, outside of the Big Four districts that Zootopia residents tended to stick to, along with the owner's known affinity for the mix of thankless, hard-risk job workers had situated things to where they were almost his entire clientele.
The building stood at one of the corners of an intersection, across from a ZVS pharmacy and two rentable space buildings that changed paws semi-frequently. The intersection itself was only a couple blocks from, and in direct view of the wester harbor bridge running between the industrial district and Savanna Central. It kept it reasonably accessible, avoiding being too long of a drive for most, those that came at least.
Four mammals got out of the recently-parked vehicle: a middle-aged wolf from the driver's seat, a lynx from the passenger side, and a hyena from the back seat who then had to help a fennec down afterward. Three of them dressed in FAM's bdu woodland camo, and the hyena in the usual cargo pants, dress shirt and yellow tie of a nuclear plant staff member, only missing the teal reflector vest. The hyena and fennec stuck together at the smaller mammal's slower pace, while the lynx and wolf went off ahead. They all passed by and between the same vehicles just the same, but the lingering two took more notice of one in particular.
"Ahh," Haida, the hyena voiced up, "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that's his?" He asked of a nearby van parked in one of the unreserved spots.
It was an old-looking, beat up thing, with some detailed art piece on the side depicting a fantasy hero fox amid some explosive scenery, sporting shades and holding a damsel princess vixen who'd fainted in his arms.
"Hm?" Fenneko took her eyes off her phone to glance at the sight. "Yeah, that's it alright."
"Ya don't think he's overdoing it a little bit?" Haida asked a question he already knew the general answer to.
"He's gotta project somehow." Fenneko answered, as the two approached the door of the building. "Being mostly into stuff that doesn't fit with a false persona you've been forced to hold up for financial survival for the last twenty years leaves you with a pretty decent-sized identity crisis. That kinda inner conflict doesn't really settle out in the most subtle ways."
Haida's mouth tried to drift open a bit in response to the larger-than-necessary explanation he got for an answer, but he was more than used to who his wife was at this point. Instead of standing there haplessly blinking like he might have in a previous time, he just held the door open for her and followed inside afterward.
Inside, a cleaner version of the normal bowling alley scent waited, mixed with a few dining aromas from the little food and drink service counter area to the left. A mix of sounds, sound effects and soundtracks came from the long but narrow arcade section to the right, while the expected rhythm of deep rolling and crashing sounds met them from ahead. It wasn't actually that large of a place, at least by what bowling alleys normally were. There were only eight lanes in all, and even the parking lot outside had only contained an inner, middle and outer row. But, the unexpected differences had no real effect on either of the two new faces who'd just walked in.
"Haida and Fenneko?" The lone mammal behind the primary alley counter asked in assumptive greeting as the two of them walked up. Max and Humphrey were both standing on the customer side, neither blocking the view of the puma behind it who'd just spoken. He was a younger guy from what might've been expected of an establishment owner; a mountain feline somewhere only around thirty, with messy blue dyed fur atop his head between his ears. "Max's new importees?"
"One of us." Fenneko spoke of herself, and then commented on Haida. "He belongs to the power plant."
"Huh," the young owner remarked, leaning down on the counter with folded arms, "I woulda guessed form the golden circles he belonged to you."
"Oh he does." Humphrey commented in, wearing his permanent, lackadaisically-amused look on his face. "He's just on lease to ZNPS Mondays through Thursdays."
"Oh come on!" Haida attempted to protest.
"It's the same on both ends." Fenneko surprisingly admitted, where up until even recently she might have joined. "It's not like I'm ever seen with anyone else either." Though she kept her face aimed down at her phone to avoid any potentially visible expression.
"Well," the wolf spoke again, taking it upon himself to introduce the two to the puma behind the counter, "although his own better half or rather better ninety percent is busy grading exams and papers this evening, here at least you have the gregarious, guaranteed genuine Gallus the galliant!"
Gallus's eyebrows dropped a bit in some annoyance, though his own default casual cat smile didn't weaken any.
"Oh man," Fenneko remarked, "the longest non-legal name anyone at our old work had was only two words."
"Shoes please." Max finally spoke.
"Riiight." Gallus acknowledged the move along request, leaving a lingering leery eye on the wolf of the group for a second before shifting away to grab Max's pair and extract the proper sizes and foot types for the two newcomers.
Luckily for them, Humphrey's own keeper of sorts entered at that same moment; a tan-furred female wolf in a ZPD uniform, with lieutenant's rank bar on her upper sleeve. She already knew, like she always did. Humphrey could grate some nerves at times. Never in a really bad way, just, he wasn't always the best fit for mammals who weren't in a childish mood.
Humphrey caught that everyone's attention had shifted and turned about himself. "Sweetie!" He greeted his own wife with a lovingly guilty smile.
Lieutenant Katelyn held a slight smile while she let a single eyebrow raise.
Her husband gave back a full teeth-displaying I'm innocent smile in return.
Kate's eyes rolled in sync with the inevitable sigh that escaped her.
"Ok, ok, I promise." Humphrey departed from the counter to go walk with her over to one of the non-participant tables.
In the meantime, Gallus returned to the remaining three of them with the requested pairs of bowling shoes. "Here ya go." He placed them on the outer edge of the counter.
"Thanks." Haida said, taking his own and handing Fenneko's down to her.
"Hm? I'm not playing." She responded to the attempted handoff.
Gallus provided an explanation. "Still have to wear the shoes if you're gonna be on the floor, play or no play."
Fenneko took the properly fennec-sized bowling shoes and gave them some degree of a detective Fenneko inspection. "Wow," she actually remarked, still in her ever-flat vocal tone of course, "not even the slightest sign of being used."
"Every customer here gets their own dedicated pair." Gallus told her with a prouder calm. "Already put your names on their specific cubby slots for em. Those are five hundred percent brand new."
"Ha, five hundred percent?" Haida couldn't help asking.
"Yeah, one hundred percent doesn't last as long." Gallus remarked.
It left Haida uncertain as to exactly to what extent it was meant to be a joke, but his attention was drawn away when Fenneko redirected it.
"Looks like that's us." She said, indicating the table and seating arrangement of one of the middle lane pairs.
"That one?" Haida turned to ask Max?
"With the cops and the bowling ace, yeah." Max confirmed, sending them over.
After the odd pairing had walked away, Gallus finally turned his own attention over to the camo'd lynx still at the counter. "No Jamie?" He asked about the absence of Max's jackal wife.
"Family." Max answered.
"Still not welcome?" Gallus asked about Max's invitee status.
"Not unwelcome," Max answered, "just ruin it too much between her and her mom."
Gallus's natural demeanor almost broke for a wince, just managing to avoid it. "Still the why did my daughter choose a cat thing?" He asked.
"That's the only thing." Max answered.
Gallus sympathized with his smaller feline friend, but he ultimately knew it would be better for him if he just moved it along. "Everyone again?" He asked, raising a ready claw to tap on the register screen.
"As long it's not over the line." Max agreed, as had become normal.
Gallus looked over his shoulder at all the mammals scatter throughout the bowling section, his head ever so slightly tilting from side to side as he counted them up, and his eyes then going upward in-place for a second while he did the math. "Around fourteen hundred if you do the whole grand-span thing." He told him.
"You included everything in there, right?" Max made sure.
"Absolutely everything?" Gallus asked him to confirm.
Max didn't actually answer, because he knew that the puma knew it wasn't a real question.
"Alright, got it." Gallus acknowledged. "The other stuff doesn't add as much as the lanes. Whole thing's gonna be $1,870." He finished placing everything on select and entering the amount of customers present, along with the number expected to be coming later. "Yours? Or—"
"Company charge." Max specified.
"Alright." Gallus selected the rare option on the touchpad. "What's the corporate for you guys again?" He asked for FAM's charging number.
"Five zero eight," Max began, allowing Gallus a second to enter it between each set, "eight four three, nine zero seven, nine zero five."
Gallus entered the number, and an alert immediately sounded on Max's phone.
The lynx brought the confirmation request up on his phone screen and went about the numerous authentication steps until it finalized and the charge went through.
A confirmation notice concurrently appeared on Gallus's special register screen. "Alright then," he said, then holding up a pointer finger just as he turned away with a casual smirk, "one moment."
"Don't . . ." Max initially tried to stop him, but in the end he just exhaled while his eyes rolled up.
The puma stepped over to the counter's announcement mic and cleared his throat before pressing down on the intercom button. "Good afternoon everybody, hardworking unthanked mammals of every kind. As you might have noticed by the arrival of camo-mammals, FAM is here. FAM, is, here. Everything is free, everything is free. All your purchases are being refunded. All your lane stays are extended to closing time. Infinite food, infinite drink refills and infinite rounds on all arcade games. Enjoy yourselves everybody!"
A few brief cheers and whistles came from the two and half dozen or so currently in the bowling alley. Two or three mammals got up and rushed to the grill & dine to place large, collective food orders for their respective groups. And Gallus himself actually came out from behind the primary counter and started heading over to the arcade section with the secret key, which bore closer resemblance to an insert pin but still functioned as key of sorts, turning in an unlocking slot to disengage the mechanism that required tokens for the games and machines to play.
Max left the counter at the same time Gallus did, heading in the opposite direction over to the middle lanes. Over at which, Haida and Fenneko had just met the bowling ace Max had previously mentioned.
After she and Haida had greeted Finnick, a semi-friend they had previously known online as SmolFoxThugLife31, Fenneko had been staring down at the fellow fennec . . . the significantly shorter fellow fennec. She was just staring wordlessly, with an absolutely flat expression that yet somehow radiated smugness. Meanwhile Haida was beginning to blink a bit nervously at her, hoping she wasn't going to make . . . a Fenneko comment. And Finnick just kept sinking further and further into a glowering face the longer the whole thing carried on.
Haida knew Fenneko was a little taller than a normal fennec, but this guy was shorter than the fennec average, by a fair bit. And, he also knew, Fenneko was beyond silent smug-mocking at the moment.
A growl was even just starting to creep out of the small member of the smallest fox species. "rrrr-what!?" Finnick finally demanded.
"Hm? Nah, nothing." Fenneko blatantly feigned ignorance, casually returning her attention to her phone again before turning away to take one of the seats.
Haida was relieved, to say the least. His wife had always had a habit of pushing obvious buttons for her own amusement, but he was kinda worried about how bad this guy might explode if she had.
Finnick's bitter street glare didn't exactly relent, though it wasn't as if it ever did anyway. "Yeah, you got inches on me," he said, "but you're still the second smallest thing in the room."
Haida had just sat down beside her to put his own bowling shoes on, when she suddenly took one of his arms and lifted it up as high she could.
"At least I have a way to reach the top shelf." She inevitably couldn't resist remarking something.
It ended up being a something to which the shorter fennec just growled and scowled at, ultimately not pursuing it and instead turning away himself to leap up onto the seat of their lane's screen computer.
Haida admitted to himself, it was a pretty impressive jump. Despite his lack of height, Finnick didn't entirely seem to have all that much trouble accessing things.
Once Finnick entered their lane's setup screen he began entering their names. Each player slot only allowed up to four letters, so he went through putting abbreviations for everyone, though not necessarily of their actual names. Finn for himself, Fenn for Fenneko, Yeen when he got to Haida, causing an open-mouth blink in said yeen who ultimately decided not to protest it, Camo apparently for Max, Bad for Badili, a leopard employee of FAM they had recently met, and finally Lion for Badili's wife, police Captain Vitani.
"Ah-she's not playing." Haida spoke up he suddenly remembered Fenneko's intended non-participance.
"She is now." Finnick corrected him.
"Huh?" Fenneko looked up from her phone. "As if."
"Well," Haida felt the urge to remind her, "you know how that usually ends up."
"What? Who's side are you on?" She asked him.
"Wha-uh ahhh—"
Their attention was thankfully drawn away before Haida had to give an actual answer. Max had finally come to their lane pair's seating set, taking the very edge seat.
"You seriously just take the bill for everybody?" Haida asked, more than a bit shocked at . . . what was some kind of opposite to their old boss.
"Yeah." Max gave the simplest answer, and then redirected their attention back to the smallest mammal in the building. "You might wanna watch."
The tiny fox picked up a bowling ball of relatively low weight, but still nearly half his size. He carried it up to the line and paused, before turning one-eighty to face them with his back to the lane. While looking right at them, he rolled the ball backwards, sending it down the lane at an angle. It appeared to be aiming for a rendezvous with the gutter about halfway down, but, it had an odd spin to it . . .
The ball suddenly warped its path and swiveled, veering away from one gutter towards the other, and then swaying from that one as well, curving at the last second right into a devastating strike.
What few mammals hadn't known of him before stared with gaping jaws, while the little fennec himself drew out a pair of shades, flicked them open, and slid them on as he walked away from the strike as if it were an action film explosion.
Prior to the violation of mundane physics Haida had just witnessed, Anai spontaneously techno-rapping had been the cause of his most dumbstruck yeen face. Well, that moment was dethroned now.
"Man," Fenneko was the one who actually spoke, "and I thought Ton's ability to spontaneously drop out of random ceilings was reality-breaking."
Max spoke up next to them. "Giving the ball a spin-curve is a legit thing you can pull off, if you really know what you're doing. My uncle could do it, but he was the only other one I've ever seen who could."
It seemed to be enough for Haida to at least halfway close his mouth, lingering open somewhat over the next couple moments.
"Your turn, Top Shelf." Finnick said in mockery to the one other fennec present as he walked by, picking and hopping up onto a seat of his own to watch.
"Food or drinks." Max suddenly said, grabbing Haida and Fenneko's attention again. "You guys want anything?"
"Huh?" Haida responded, while Fenneko slipped off of her seat to walk towards the ball rack. "What'a they got?" Haida asked.
"Any kind of dinner stuff you can get in a generic restaurant." Max answered. "And the same selection of soda drinks. If you're looking for something really Japanda-specific you're not gonna find it."
"Nah, I wouldn't expect to outside of a specialized joint." Haida agreed. "Just not really used to bowling alleys. They have any of the flavored Cokes?" He asked. "The only kinda soda I've seen Fenneko drink is some kind of strawberry—"
"Regular's fine." Fenneko cut him off, now looking over one bowling ball after another with the exceptionally rare confused Fenneko face.
"You?" Max then asked Haida for his own request.
"Aaahh I—think I'll be alright." Haida decided.
Max looked over his shoulder to one of the nearby non-participant tables where Humphrey was sitting with Kate and signaled for Humphrey's attention.
The wolf caught it almost immediately and came right over. "Yes boss?"
"Drinks and food." Max gave what amounted to an order.
"You got it." Humphrey responded. "What for?"
"Coke for one of them," Max told him the only request of the two new mammals before his own, "my root beer and an ice cream sandwich."
"Wait, they have ice cream too?" Haida was surprised.
"Not regular, actual ice cream." Humphrey clarified things. "It's a freezer selection. Stuff like ice cream sandwiches, creamsicles, fudge pops, rainbow sliders and like a dozen other things."
"I actually might take a look then." Haida decided.
"Just don't take too long to make up your mind." A different wolf, one of the cops in the seating set for the lane next to theirs warned him. "Juuust judging by the names, you're up next; if nothing happens eventually it'll skip and just put you at zero."
"Oh—uh, thanks." Haida stood up quickly to follow Humphrey to the food and drink alcove.
"You'll be fine." Yet another wolf, a white-furred one this time, corrected the prior advice. "Don't listen to anything Wolford says if you know what's good for you." The second wolf officer said of the first, drawing a ruined joke look from him.
"That one's a screw-off." A fresh female voice explained, coming from an approaching lioness, bearing a double-bar police Captain insignia on her upper sleeve.. She was coming up to their seating area, with a happy-looking male leopard walking beside her. Haida recognized her husband Badili, which obviously made her Captain Vitani. Wolford correspondingly gave her a two-finger salute-off as she walked by, which proved to always be a mistake. "DO NOT mock the old traditions." Vitani scathed, leaving Wolford to lean back a bit with felled ears, a nervous dead mammal smile and paws raised halfway in surrender.
"Well," Humphrey drew Haida's attention away again, "if you are coming you should still hurry up, before you end up as collateral damage." He suggested as he kept walking away.
Haida swung himself back and forth between one wolf who had been in trouble, and one who was in trouble right now. Well, there was only one correct direction to go, and he took it, still hearing comments from Captain Vitani behind him about how Wolford was only being spared because she was in a good mood.
Just as Humphrey promised, there was indeed an ice cream item freezer sitting in front of the food service counter, next to the soda fountain machine. It contained quite a number of things, some Haida had heard of, some he hadn't. He previously had never encountered ice cream cookies or ice cream oreos, let alone cookies and cream bars or a chocolate funwich. He definitely wanted something, and he let his mind roll over everything while the wolf beside him filled the two requested drinks. Ultimately he decided to try the supposed funwich, so he slid the freezer open and picked one out, and then instinctively went for his wallet.
"Nope." Humphrey stopped him. "Max got everything already, remember?"
"Oh, dang yeah, I forgot." Haida stuffed his wallet back into his pocket. "Haaa-ha, definitely not used to that kinda thing." He explained. "We had mandatory monthly office parties back home, where everybody had to attend and pay for their own stuff."
For a few seconds, Humphrey's default nonchalant expression actually broke. "Wait, you got forced by your work to go someplace outside of work and spend your own money on it? Is that even legal?"
"Aaahh I guess," Haida answered, "back home at least."
"Old boss not the buddy type?" Humphrey asked, expression returning to normal.
"Hahaha, naaah he was more of aaaa—" Haida couldn't actually think of anything appropriate to say.
"Got it." Humphrey caught the implication anyways. "I'd get you anyways," he said, placing covers on both filled drinks, "if Max hadn't already."
"Huh? Wait really?" Haida asked, as they both began to head back.
"Yeah, I'm the highest paid guy in FAM, so I usually get stuff if he isn't around to put it on the corporate bill." Humphrey affirmed.
Haida actually had to blink a few times. "Wha—wait isn't Max like the owner or something? How are you getting paid the most?"
"He is." Humphrey answered. "He just pays himself the least. I always got the most because I don't live on-premises, and I've got three kids." He rolled his eyes with an exhausted dad smile. "Though I lost part of that bonus now that Steven's out on his own."
Haida was still genuinely shocked. "You know I keep almost not believing you guys are for real, but ha-I guess I can't really compare a considerate boss to all the unrealistic stuff one of our old coworkers kept stumbling into."
"The Instagram chick Fenneko's always mocking?" Humphrey asked.
They had just arrived back at their lane's seating set as Fenneko was returning from her turn, so Fenneko herself ended up answering. "Nah, that's Tsunoda." She answered the wolf's question. "Retsuko's the one who was stepping out of bounds on believability. All kinds of guys throwing themselves at her one after another, just so happening to constantly run into a billionaire, just so happening to crash into a pop star band's van, getting hired by the band instead of getting sued, probably some more stuff by now. We left before the pop singer business; I only keep finding about stuff from e-copping Tsunoda."
This time it was Humphrey's turn to blink. "Uuuhh, you know I think I might call you on all that." He said, leaning over the backs of the seats to hand both Fenneko and Max their drinks.
Fenneko just shrugged, and took a sip of her Coca Cola before responding. "It's whatever."
"You got a strike!?" Haida suddenly gawked.
"She got a spare." Max corrected him after sipping his own drink. "Missed the first shot, knocked everything out on the second."
Haida's dumbfounded face went back to his wife, and lingered until some kind of explanation came from her.
"Don't ask me." Fenneko said. "I rolled the ball and it hit the stuff." She just went about scrolling on her phone.
Whether it was the simplistic explanation, or the fact that she had knocked over all the pins, she managed to enhance the natural bitterness on Finnick's face as he sat with his arms crossed. He occupied one of the middle seats, one that left Haida in the awkward position of having him on one side and Fenneko on the other, quite viscerally able to feel the two opposite forces of bitterness and smugness flowing through him from each of them respectively. Vitani and Badili sat just past Finnick, with the Police Captain holding the edge seat beside their neighboring lane so she could respond to any of her subordinates whenever they spoke to her. Which, proved to be frequent enough.
Another officer, a female cheetah carrying a police motorcycle helmet, came into the building at that same moment and dashed over behind Vitani's seat.
"Hey Fuli." Captain Vitani actually spoke in a pleasant tone.
"Hey guys." Fuli greeted her friends, both Vitani and Badili.
"HeY," Badili greeted back with his normal odd syllable emphasis, "hOW have you and the others been?" He asked.
"Eh, everything's starting to die down now, so all the double overtime's finally done with." Fuli answered, referring to the falling tensions in the city since the resolution of the prior crisis. "We've actually been able to start getting together again."
"Oh! Did you tWO figure out a dAY yet?" The leopard's memory made him suddenly ask with hopeful anticipation.
"Thaaat's actually why I wanted to run by." Fuli admitted, her eyes angling away and her face visibly trying to fight off a smile. "Kion's work can't let him off during the same potential date range I originally asked for." She told Vitani now. "I was hoping you could shift my leave time over to the new ones instead? I sent you an email with them earlier."
"Sure." Her Captain answered. "I'll take care of it."
"Thanks!" The cheetah's ability to withhold a complete smile collapsed.
"Oh come on!" Officer Wolford whined from the neighboring lane. "How come she can ask you for stuff without getting her head chewed off?" He made it sound as if it legitimately was some kind of guarded secret he desperately wanted to know.
Vitani's face instantaneously flipped like a switch, dropping the former pleasantry she'd been using with her husband and their friend, and reverting to a . . . not dead serious, but more properly serious and dead demeanor.
But, before their Captain spoke, it ended up being Corporal Grizzoli, the more quiet, white-furred wolf sitting next to Wolford who provided an answer. "Spraying the whole first precinct office with Silly String last Fall probably doesn't help." He paused for a brief second. "Or putting fake spiders in all the drinks at the holiday party." Another pause. "Or sticking a Mama's Boy decal on Deputy-Chief Sableherd's car. Or—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Wolford sneered at his fellow canine. "Goody two-shoes."
"Anyway," Fuli resumed speaking, "thanks again." She said to Vitani a second time.
The lioness's face flipped on-switch again when she returned her attention back to her friend, returning to the calm pleasantry she had before. "Of course."
"And don't WOrry," Badili promised, "we'll be there."
"That much I knew." Fuli assured him. "Alright, I gotta run."
"I'll see you at the morning meeting tomorrow." Vitani said as their friend departed.
Officer Runningmile, soon to be Officer Pridelander, placed her riding helmet back on her head as she walked out, and the slightly-dampened revving sound of an AW Cheeantelope motorcycle reached the ears of her friends inside shortly afterwards. And then, not even a whole minute after she had left, yet another different ZPD member entered the building. This time it was a tall, and enormous buffalo who had to duck his head down by a foot to fit under the doorframe. After his first few steps in, a round of pumping shouts broke out.
"BO—GO! BO—GO! BO—GO! BO—GO!"
"Enough!" The entire department's boss ordered once he'd reached their rented lane.
Everyone, even non-officers who'd been part of it, ceased immediately on-command.
"Finally!" Finnick barked, to the surprise of some. "NOW the real competition shows up!"
Bogo looked over . . . and largely down at the smallest animal in the building. A single eyebrow slightly rose up just before his own response came. "The department's former favorite delinquent runt." He acknowledged the tiny bowling master.
Bared teeth and a growl were the fennec's response.
The much larger mammal's normal demeanor helped him keep a snort at bay, instead merely giving a civil remark before he turned away. "I'll be seeing you on your turn."
Finnick's bitter growl carried on for another few seconds, whilst Max returned from his own turn behind him and Badili rose for his. Just as the leopard stood up, Finnick finally spun around. "HURRY UP!" He barked out with impatient ferocity, turning his head then over his shoulder to cast another quick glare at the now-sitting buffalo.
Without fail, and with more than one occasional amused glance at the tiny fox, Badili and Vitani both took their own turns quickly. Meanwhile, the pawful of police officers at the lane next to them had already run through their own, having placed Bogo last on the screen's list, knowing he would be the last to arrive. They all waited for it to finally be Finnick's turn again, at the moment of which, Chief Bogo stood up as well. He picked up a ball and stepped up to the line, taking a moment to crack his neck to each side, giving off enormous cracking sounds much closer to the breaking of bones, and then . . . he SENT the ball down the lane.
The ball was simply sent, not even rolled. While Bogo had rolled it in the proper motion, he'd put so much force into it that it travelled the entire length of the lane in a blink, not even having time to actually start any rolling of any kind. It slammed into the pin arrangement as if fired by a cannon, sending them all crashing into either side wall so hard they then proceeded to bounce all the way over to their respective other.
A glance cast his way by Bogo sent Finnick walking up to the line himself, upon which he initiated another defiance of physics just as he had before.
Back and forth the contest went between the largest and smallest mammals in the bowling alley.
All the other mammals on both lanes carried on playing for the sake of enjoying the game, but Bogo and Finnick just kept going. Without fail, both got a strike on every single turn they took, even on their final one and the extra two shots that granted them. And so they were both left unfulfilled, as both scores were even as they always were, nothing was settled, though the larger of the two maintained a much more level demeanor about it. The much smaller mammal remained all scowls and growls, though not many might have really been able to see it as any level of departure from his natural disposition. He did at least return to his more regular neutral scowl after his competition had left.
"Can you even miss?" Haida ended up asking Finnick as they were all starting to leave.
"Nope." Finnick didn't even look at him, merely giving an answer as he made his way out.
"Not a sINgle pin." Badili reaffirmed the little animal's answer from experience, having obviously been witness to Finnick's bowling abilities for longer Haida had.
"Not even once." Vitani added to her husband's confirmation.
Fenneko seemed unphased by the conversation, face glued naturally to her phone. However, she actually did speak. "Guess he makes up for it by getting wrecked in online chess."
"Eeehh," Haida switched from astonishment to partial sympathy, "come on, facing off against you in something calculating like that isn't exactly a winning situation for anyone."
"Eh, his rank's decent enough that he probably fairs pretty well against other players." Fenneko granted as they kept going, she and Haida walking behind Max and Humphrey towards the same JLTV they'd arrived in. An engine started nearby, followed by immediate loud backfiring blasts from the exhaust as the vehicle began to move and pull away. Vitani and Badili both stopped in the middle parking row at her police cruiser, with Max looking over to his leopard employee while he was still outside of the vehicle.
"Noon tomorrow." Max reminded him. "You and Nars are covering another delivery."
"YoUUU got it!" Badili responded, still with the same cheery leopard demeanor he always bore. He got into the passenger seat of his wife's cruiser and the two of them departed.
The remaining four mammals left a moment later as well, bringing an end to a fun Thursday night.