As they say, the third time's the charm.

The Daemonwar
For an event that had such a profound impact on the course of Variant History, there is very little information available—and for that matter little research being done—on its causes. Much of it is shrouded in mystery, almost as if humanity would rather just forget the whole thing. Given the nature of the event, that might be the case. There are a few facts available.
    At some point in the early 1980's the Coven, a magical conspiracy long believed destroyed by the Great Hunt, reemerged and stepped up its efforts to conquer the world by opening some form of mystical portal. Their first attempt at this was on an island in the Caribbean in 1982, but it was unexpectedly disrupted by Ground Zero, who had mistaken the Coven outpost for a base for the Brazilian Liberation Front, a group that sought variant dominance over South/Central America. Ground Zero had little real idea what they had encountered, and the files on the event are noticeably sketchy.
    The Coven tried again—for unknown reasons doing so in Ground Zero's very backyard, Harborview. The Coven had obscured their presence by hiring the variant mercenary team Recon, who managed to subdue Ground Zero just after the 'Grid' was opened. It stayed open for several hours before Rapidfire was able to survive an attempted ritual sacrifice by a Coven Master and free the rest of his allies. The first Grid Incursion ended shortly after that, but lent a certain air of unreality to a section of Harborview for some time thereafter. This neighborhood was destroyed as part of the Plovian Invasion little more than a year later, and there is no evidence now of what happened there.
    As they say, the third time's the charm. Operating in total secrecy, the Coven managed to open a secured gate in Brooklyn New York without anyone noticing until it was too late. The area that had been Brooklyn became an extra-dimensional beachhead, and before anyone could react the Daemons were firmly entrenched, the residents of Brooklyn were slaughtered or sacrificed. Acting independently, Ground Zero, the Host, Majestic 12 and the Justice Defenders were all repulsed; Majestic 12 made it farthest, but took serious causalities.
    As the area around Brooklyn went mad, various parts of Ground Zero's rogues gallery used the chaos as an opportunity to settle old scores. Death repeatedly engaged the heroes in battles while they were distracted by a full scale war. Similar problems were occurring for other variant teams, some no doubt engineered by Coven agents seeking to prevent the heroes' interference. Various criminal agencies were revealed as being under the thrall of the Coven, to the point of having their own variant enforcers fighting against the army and heroes within the battle. Despite these problems, the US Army and American and Canadian variants, as well as UN Earth, were able to confine the Daemonic incursion to that destroyed borough.
    The war continued for one and a half months, ending Christmas Eve, 1986. Coordinated by the mystic Grimouir, the available variant forces and the US Army were able to penetrate into the core of the Coven base and close the grid, apparently forever. The events at the end of the war are little known; Grimouir, Apollyon, Wildcard and Sargent Master Striker made it to the Coven's command chamber and closed the gate, killing several of the Coven masters in the process.
    This was not without heavy variant losses. Split Second spent most of the battle confining Death, who was doing everything he could to prevent the variant advance for some reason. After the war, the Alien Speedster was gone. Black Dragon's corpse was found amidst the rubble, apparently killed by variant agents of the Coven. Impulse died holding off wave after wave of daeminic troops to allow army columns to escape. Rapidfire was nearly crippled as a building fell on him, and he was months in recovery. NRG died providing cover for other heroes into the Coven's base. More than half of Majestic 12 died in the fighting, both during their original incursion and in the final assault. Orion the Omenbringer was overwhelmed and lost. ENOCH's body was destroyed a dozen times or more, and Uriel was apparently destroyed, though she returned shortly thereafter. Finally Wildcard went into the Daemongrid personally, to close the gate from the other side, insuring its permanent closure.
    After the war things happened quickly; without Ground Zero, New England (a hotbed of variant activity) was woefully under-defended, and the government acted quickly to distribute funds to the states for the recruitment of their own local variant teams. Knowing that they were under-prepared and disorganized, the government expanded MEDUSA operations and consolidated the Army (AVD) and Navy (Majestic 12) under MEDUSA control. This led to some problems, as much of the AVD retired rather than join MEDUSA, but it seriously bolstered MEDUSA's ranks and ability to assess and handle threats. Contractors vied for the right to rebuild Brooklyn, while funerals and mourning services were held nationwide for the victims of the sudden invasion.
    Shortly after that, everyone stopped talking about it. People simply didn't want to discuss it, and the one attempt at a televised docu-drama died a horrible death in the ratings. The wounds are just too raw right now, and everyone would simply rather forget. Only the government and various variant teams keep files on the event, and those are woefully sketchy. It's questionable whether it will even be in the history books in a generation. That might be for the best—an aspect of humanity avoiding something it cannot cope with—but it might also be part of a larger conspiracy.
    One never knows.

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