Marston is seen exiting the Sin City Saddle Club, he looks like he has just carried out some hard labour, glazed with sweat, and his clothes dirtied by the unmistakable marks of blood splatter. In one hand he is holding a bloodied tomahawk, and the other a small sack that is leaking blood from the bottom. He opens the large gate and the sound of hooves can be heard from behind it. It opens to reveal a four-horse carriage with Malicious and Murderstang at the reins, and behind them several bodies are heaped beneath a sheet of canvas. He exchanges a few words with the men, before they head off into the night to dispose of the bodies.

Marston noticed a number of men loitering around the entrance of the saddle club, which would usually have no visitors at this hour, but since the shootings from the previous week several reporters had been hanging around to find out what they could. While he’d kept his employees informed of what had happened, he had prioritised getting his own house back in order before going out and making public speeches.

Today however, Marston was feeling talkative and decided to address the crowd and give them the information they craved. He cleared his throat...

"In the early hours of the ninth of this month an operation commenced to eliminate the following men; Slade-Wilson, Jesse, FreddieMercury, Space-pole, MenchoJr, Ginge and CharlesVane. These men had conspired to assassinate myself and Balls and all those loyal to us. While knowledge of this plan of betrayal was kept between the aforementioned, several others were also targeted in the operation due to their sworn loyalty to these men." 

Marston pulled out a small piece of crumpled paper from his pocket and began reading the names.

"DeadlikeDead, Koco, Draco, Salvatore_Luchese, TonySoprano, Karmen, ducking, John_Weak, Hector, Assumptions, Knusprig, Tyrion, LeonVance, Rhys, Angel_, Gigi_Dolin, GrimReaper_, SoundWarnings, Ghost_, Jaque, Aguado, SausageFingers, Yami, Shaco, YoungDolph, ChillyCheeseSteak, Scarlett_Rose, Josie and TheMorrigan were not slain because they were traitors, but simply because they had sworn loyalty to the men we had to kill."

"The treachery was exposed by an eighth member of the group, who kept us informed of every conversation that occurred between these men which had begun months beforehand, in the aftermath of the last New York takedown. There was no guesswork here, there were no blanks to fill, this evidence was concrete and indisputable. The plan was mostly formulated and driven by Slade-Wilson who was apparently consumed by bitterness over the death of his father KingRy, and my participation as the hitman that carried out the assassination order. Other members of the group seemed less involved, certainly on a personal level, however, they did not come forward with information in the months this group was observed. My opinion on the group members is that some fell foul to groupthink, and others stayed because of their loyalty to friends within the group."

Marston shrugs and shakes his head, then continues to speak.

"In addition to the informant, Slade-Wilson had given the game away in his recruitment drive to find support for his plan. It was a fatal error to assume other leaders shared his penchant for disloyal acts, and Mr Wilson was all too eager to get others involved in his doomed plans. While in some cases he sparked ‘out of the blue’ conversations with people in a vain, but obvious attempt to butter them up, with others he felt confident enough to almost immediately reveal his intentions and entire plan. This was all reported to us and helped clarify an already very clear picture of the who, when, where, what and how the group intended to pull off such a coup." 

"Their fate was sealed, their sentence of death just needed to be delivered. The true, trustworthy, loyal outlaws were chomping at the bit to execute their would-be betrayers. And execute them they did, the unwavering soldiers of New York, our steadfast kin in Philly, and our loyal brothers in Los Angeles all united in purpose, and deployed with revolvers loaded… Without a fight and nothing more than muffled whimpers, these oath-breakers were put down…"

Marston looked down at the sack he was carrying and with several small thuds emptied it into the dirt. A grotesque sight to behold, a pile of severed hands oozing blood into the soil, each adorned with the familiar ‘Outlaw To The End’ branding.

"These men will continue to accompany us, they will decorate one of our establishments, and remind all Outlaws of the fate that awaits anyone foolish enough to make an oath they don’t intend to keep." 

Marston nods towards one of his newest recruits who hastily shuffles over and begins placing the hands back in the sack they were tipped from.

"Unfortunately the operation wasn’t completed without any casualties, lylithe a well established Capo, from the family of Fluffy_Tummy was gunned down by an enemy combatant. The only other casualty was hit after successfully eliminating his target. DeadlySpike (affectionately known as DS) was hit by friendly fire, and succumbed to the wound on his thumb (the gunshot would not have usually killed a fully grown man, however post-mortem analysis has revealed that the bullet was tainted with fresh reptilian oral bacteria which caused an immediate aggressive infection which proved fatal). The hit he carried out was of particular importance, as the target Elle-Driver had killed a New Yorker without authorisation in the lead up to this operation. Begrudgingly I had to put her death on ice to avoid disruption to our plans, but in no situation was she ever going to get away with her actions. Nobody gets a free pass to kill a loyal New Yorker. Rest in peace to both zDiamonDz and DS."

Marston bows his head in silence, for a few moments before looking back up to the listening crowd.

"Anyway, that’s all the sardines that will be thrown from the trawler today. If you want any more you’ll have to ask for them..."

StandbyJudgeHarold had placed a folding chair in front of the Sin City Caddle Club, he had been tipped by one of his interns that the speech was to take place here today and thus had camped out for the past couple of hours or so, nibbling on a bag of peanuts to keep himself occupied. Now that the speech was taking place he sat up straight, notepad in one hand and pen in the other, taking notes as Marston was giving his account of the events that transpired, occasionally nodding.

A curious member of the audience tried to look over StandbyJudgeHarold's shoulder to see what he had been writing, StandbyJudgeHarold quickly covered the notepad with his forearm, frowned and said "beat it you journalistic parasite".

Another more shrewd member of the audience looked at StandbyJudgeHarold's notepad from a distance. He saw a doodle of an elephant; another doodle of a giraffe; a duck; a cow; the eiffel tower; an otter; a platypus; BusterScruggs wearing a comically large cowboy hat; the words "DETROIT" next to "Diversion????"; and finally the name Illuminatiated in the center circled many, many times.