Marcus and Montreari faced each other each with poker faces showing no semblance of emotion.
Mussolini who came to the meeting place with Chung stood behind Marcus, while Sniveld stood behind Montreari.
The atmosphere was tense, but it finally became hostile when Mussolini could no longer hold his temper and exploded.
"Ya damned Montreari! I ought to-" Luckily for the talks, Mussolini was stopped by Chung before he could physically attack Montreari.
"Ya damned Snake! You legalize Lent right now or else!" Mussolini emotionally roared.
"Ohh, threatening a Council member to legalize a narcotic through force are we? Wouldn't sound too nice in a judge's ears..." Montreari half mocked half threatened in a joking manner.
"Narcotic?! Why you! You knew we Grogs needed that stuff to survive! Yet you still passed its prohibition! You've just killed thousands of innocent Grogs throughout the City ya heartless prick!" Mussolini shouted with anger stemming from his soul.
"Yeah, sure you need them... I need them too, ya know, for my raves! Gahahaha Sthsssss" Sniveld laughed behind Montreari then hissed due to laughing too much as his long and thin t-shaped tongue slithered...
"For drug parties?" Montreari sarcastically laughed at Mussolini while Marcus and Chung quietly watched from the side...
"You snake! Stop acting like you don't know-" Mussolini's rage was incited by Montreari and Sniveld's provocation but was ultimately stopped by the calm Marcus sitting in front of him.
"This isn't taking us anywhere..." Marcus spoke, knowing the full situation...
"A snake? You meant spider right? Ha ha ha" Montreari laughed as he revealed six more eyes that suddenly opened as if mocking and intimidating Mussolini. Although Montreari, like Marcus, both looked somewhat similar to humans, in some angles were no doubt a different race who closely resembled Spiders... The Arachii.
Because of the Arachii's long evolutionary history with the Gorgrog and their Predator-Prey relationship, despite Mussolini's larger and stronger Physique, he was still a little bit shook from Montreari's intimidation...
But Mussolini didn't let Montreari's intimidation win over him, for Montreari's sins against him, were far too great and his anger at Montreari won over instinctual fear...
You see, Lent or known by its scientific name as Mentha Somniferum, when used by a human or any other humanoid alien creature, could indeed be considered "harmful" to one's health due to its addictive nature. But that is only if you consider the truth that Lentivo, as it's called by the Gorgrog, is only as addictive as Caffeine or Chocolate and is only really used by the Gorgrog to soothe their slightly more aggressive nature.
The Gorgrog's biological nature made them susceptible to violence and anger, but through evolutionary coincidence, the early and primitive Gorgrog were lucky enough to live near Lent plants, which, thanks to it's pleasing and slightly addictive nature, became a staple within early Gorgrog societies and cultures.
They put it in everything! As special sauce toppings for their famous Gorgrog Pizzas and Spaghetti additives to good old herbal remedies for their injuries.
Lent was used in every nook and cranny within Gorgrog life...
And, thanks to its soothing properties, it reigned in the Gorgrog's violent nature which helped the Gorgrog flourish enough to develop into the space age...
It wasn't an exaggeration when past Gorgrog scientists attribute Lent for the success of Gorgrog civilization even as they competed with the Arachii civilization who lived right next to them on the same planet...
After the Gorgrog's defeat by the hands of the HPG in the battle of Grog, where they tried to liberate their home planet from the HPG's influence who the Arachii shamelessly joined and immediately cooperated with, and their inevitable integration into the HPG, the significance of Lent to the Gorgrog's didn't lessen and in-fact its use even became popular throughout the whole Hyper Galactic Empire...
Sadly, after Montreari pulled some strings back in the HPG's capital, Lent was outlawed as a narcotic despite its mild nature...
And since the Arachii were the first to cooperate with the HPG and the Gorgrogs only joined in after they were defeated, most Arachii integrated early on in HPG society and even became politicians.
Their politicians helped the passing of the bill that declared Lent as a narcotic.
After Lent's prohibition, Gorgrog's found it harder and harder to find work as even though they were much tamer than they were during their primitive times, they were still quite irritable than other aliens, which made it hard for the already discriminated Gorgrog minority to find work...
And since the only work available to the poor marginalized Gorgrog of society were low-end laborious jobs like being a janitor or factory worker that needed high amounts of patience, and service jobs like being a waiter or Hypercab driver that dealt with frustrating customers, the Gorgrogs were often seen as liabilities due to their irritable nature and how they retort to violence when greeted by unreasonably demanding customers, leading them to lose their jobs and forced into gangs and thuggery to survive...
That and their often negative portrayals on the Hypernews resulted in the Gorgrog's bad stigma.
When Mussolini said that Montreari, the politician responsible for the criminalization of Lent decades ago, killed thousands of Gorgrog, he wasn't kidding...
The Arachii have extremely long lifespans when compared to the Gorgrogs, and so Mussolini was but a child when the criminalization of Lent occurred and he had to live through that discrimination... as the stigma between Gorgrogs and Arachii deepened...
The only Arachii who went against the bill was Marcus and a few other Councilmen like Bondre...
This was why Mussolini wholeheartedly cooperated with an Arachii like Marcus, despite the Gorgrog's deep hatred for them, as only Marcus, despite being corrupt (if you believed in the word's literal definition) defended the rights of the Gorgrog...
Besides, Mussolini didn't care where you got your money as long as you didn't hurt another person to get it.
The HPG was already incredibly corrupt, and most of its government "projects" were just covers by corrupt politicians to embezzle funds.
And so, the ever sly Marcus comes in and embezzles even larger funds from the HPG's o so honest "projects" and puts the money into non-profit organizations with actual real integrity.
"A scammer with a heart" is what Mussolini calls Marcus...