[Power is Only for the One Who Rules - Various Questions Answered]

Moderator's note: The questions about how this superpower functions were all collected into this thread and have been answered together. The original questions posed by the community have been deleted from this thread to keep its size to a manageable level. 

[Triggers and Treats As/Counts As (with My Cabal is Only For the Strong)]

As far as I can tell, this hasn't come up in all of the threads I could find regarding Malekith's Cloak of Shadows, etc. Forgive me if it has. I'm pretty certain I can infer the answer from previous ones, but I'd rather get it clarified.

Looking at the new Skull Leadership, which is essentially the Reality Gem / Probability Manipulation / Cloak of Shadows, it allows you to treat a Failure as a Critical. I know from previous rulings that this is a Critical in all rules aspects (such as Pierce, Grand Illusion, etc), but does that Critical also satisfy the conditions for a trigger, such as the Reality Rupture trigger on Reality Bows to Me! ? I have seen rules answers that specify triggers are based on what's rolled on the dice, but I'm not sure if that's a more general answer that doesn't take this into account. Just to throw two conflict scenarios to really illustrate the point:

• Red Skull uses the Reality Rupture attack. He rolls a Failure, Wild and Hit. Using the leadership, he treats his Failure as a Critical. He explodes his Critical, and also triggers Reality Rupture (which requires Critical-Wild-Hit) or;
• Crossbones uses the Plasma Beam attack. He rolls a Wild and a Failure. Using the leadership, he treats his Failure as a Critical. He explodes his Critical, and also triggers Pierce (which requires Failure-Wild).

Thanks.

[Protection and receiving a condition a second time]

Pretty much as the title says. If a unit with Protection receives a second instance of a condition during an attack, either from a reactive ability (such as Coordinated Fire), or from receiving a condition on the combat tree, does the one damage go in to the Damage Pool, which can be reduced by Protection, or is it "separate"? And if it does not go in the pool, is the damage taken immediately when the condition is applied (ie before the damage pool is)?

[Gotta Get Some Air interaction with Cat and Mouse]

Gotta Get Some Air specifies that Logan "cannot contest objective tokens this Round". If Gotta Get Some Air is played in response to the place from Cat and Mouse (which according to this ruling, takes place before any round begins:

), would Logan be able to contest objective tokens during the first round, as there is no "this Round" when the tactics card is resolved?