Medusa (Champions Online)

Medusa is an arch-villain from the free-to-play game Champions Online.

History
Madeline Poe (nee Bruner) started out as an accountant. It wasn’t precisely any girl’s dream, but she liked money, and she liked information, and she liked being able to manipulate both to her advantage. Lucky for her, the brilliant scientist, Sebastian Poe, needed an accountant and came to her.

It didn’t take long for Madeline to figure out what Sebastian was up to. He was developing a serum to increase psionic powers, and had managed to increase his own abilities. Madeline was fascinated with the entire idea and set herself to seduce the married scientist. It wasn’t hard. Madeline had always had a certain raw sexuality to her. While not the most beautiful woman in the world, she had a very strong appeal for a certain type of man. Fortunately, that type tended to be powerful but also malleable.

She convinced Sebastian to give her the serum. She also let slip certain information so that Sebastian’s wife would find out not only about the affair, but that Sebastian had been testing out the serum on his infant son. The wife packed up the kid and immediately left Sebastian, as Madeline planned. Of course, Madeline kept Sebastian distracted enough that he didn’t really care when his wife and son disappeared. Instead, he was beginning what would eventually become a criminal empire. All, of course, under Madeline’s encouragement.

Madeline and Sebastian married, making her half owner in all his endeavors. Together, they used PSI to take over the Scarlatti mob organization as well as a key VIPER nest in Baltimore.

Madeline began calling herself Medusa around that time, since her psionic ability was to paralyze an opponent. It was so potent, the effect wouldn’t wear off until a day later, which, of course, gave her as much time as she needed to do whatever she wanted.

Pretty soon it became clear that what she really wanted was more power. Sebastian wasn’t moving quickly enough for her, and was both far too cautious and far too stubborn. However, his protégée, Psimon, didn’t have those particular flaws. In addition, Psimon was an aggressive younger man who appealed to Medusa’s sensual side. It wasn’t long before the two of them began a tumultuous affair. Psimon fell head over heels for Medusa, while she in turn fell for him. However, she never let her affection for him overshadow her dreams of taking over PSI.

Medusa found that it was much easier for her to manipulate the younger Psimon than it had ever been to manipulate Sebastian Poe. She convinced him to help her take over. Together, they dropped enough hints and clues to lead the Justice Squadron to Sebastian Poe and several of his more loyal followers within PSI. Thanks to their subterfuge, the Justice Squadron – and everyone else – believed that PSI had been completely eradicated.

To further their plans, Medusa convinced Psimon to move the organization to the outskirts of Millennium City, where they created a shell corporation known as the self help phenomenon, Mind, Inc. It was her idea to use the Mind, Inc. counselors to scan clients for potential psionic ability as well as gathering whatever information possible.