There were attempts to trace the chain of causation, later, to reconstruct the series of events - after the Atlantic Six had arrived, after the Royal Court had escaped, after they had sworn vengeance and the superheroes of Detroit had expressed total confusion, after the forensics experts surveyed every inch of the cordoned-off battlefield, to the smoking spot on the ground where the Titanium Tyrant had stood. No one, hero or villain, could remember acting in any respect uncharacteristically; nothing, step-by-step, anomalous had occurred, except -
Well.
The chain of events was this. At 0407, the Titanium Tyrant, four members of the Royal Court (Heavyhand, Blitz, Paragon and the Gorgon Queen), and three previously unassociated supervillains (Steelstorm, Earthshaker and Proteus) had, by use of a robot army, seized control of twenty-three blocks of Winchester, MI surrounding a police station, for purposes of breaking out three supervillains then in jail pending transfer to a high-security prison (Spinner, Chasseur, and Polymath). At 04:11, the Detroit Defenders (Radiant, Vigil, Mayhem and the Chrome Champion) were alerted, and from 04:17 on, they intervened to attempt to stop this breakout, as would arrive Octavian, Charioteer and the Atlantic Six, who would arrive later in the battle.
By 0418, the police station was on fire. By 0423, it had spread to four of the twenty-three secured blocks, the smoke blocking visibility for Steelstorm's robots, thus minimizing casualties, while simultaneously providing an escape path for the Tyrant. At 04:27, the Royal Court attempted to withdraw in a prearranged pattern to the basement of a nearby museum. This movement was not traced until (0923). At 0431, Radiant, quote, got turned around, close quote, then quote found herself close quote facing the Titanium Tyrant (wearing his Durendal Mk. VII heavy battle armor) in a room displaying knightly armor of the thirteenth centuries.
At 04:33, -