Gorgon

The Gorgon was an intelligent, artificial life-form created to act as a biological weapon of mass destruction.

## Biography

In the late 1970's, the Gorgon was created by Alphonse Rodin at the behest of Dr. Destroyer to function as a doomsday weapon in one of his many schemes. Before it could be properly deployed, however, its incubation vat was stolen by the Time Wizard. The Time Wizard then had the creature reprogrammed to serve him instead of Destroyer and unleashed it. The incident resulted in such chaos that UNTIL authorized the emergency use of a nuclear weapon to annihilate the Gorgon, but even this extreme measure was only partly successful: the Gorgon was reduced to a few weak, irradiated cells, which were captured and held for decades in a secret UNTIL facility.

Unfortunately for the world, the Gorgon didn't stay dormant. Thanks to the intervention of the Time Wizard and his minion, Old Mentat, the Gorgon was revived in the year 2020. Although once again destroyed by a nuclear detonation, this one a failsafe built into the UNTIL facility for just such an eventuality, the beast was resurrected once more by the Time Wizard when he reversed the explosion with his temporal powers.

Now the Gorgon waits faithfully by the Time Wizard's side, carrying out his every whim, though it has evidenced some odd behavior since being revived (notably, it refrained from outright killing Agent Cage on the Time Wizard's orders, instead dropping him unharmed into the choppy waters of Lake Michigan to drown).

Later, in the final confrontation between the Contenders' strike force and the Time Wizard, the Gorgon was destroyed when it was discovered that Visage had merged with the creature upon its resurrection and her personality lay dormant in its psyche. Mentat awakened her to full consciousness, and she used her powers to cause large portions of the Gorgon's body to convert into magnesium oxide. The highly volatile metal ignited instantly and incinerated the Gorgon from within, destroying it utterly, and the violence of the continual chain reaction prevented even the Time Wizard from doing anything to reverse the damage.

## Personality

The Gorgon, despite its monstrous form, is highly intelligent and eschews violence on principle. It suffers a tremendous amount of guilt for the lives it has taken, which is magnified by the fact that the Gorgon sees *all* life, both sentient and non, as having the same intrinsic value. As such it even mourns the microscopic organisms it has consumed, which number in the billions. These feelings of guilt cause the Gorgon to live in a frustrated state of rage, hating its master but unable to defy him in the slightest.

The Gorgon has been heard to suggest that, if given its freedom, it would choose to convert its biomass into an algae bloom and float away into the ocean.

## Powers

The Gorgon is an incredibly deadly combatant. Its strength and speed allow it to overpower even the mightiest opponents, its claws can rake through most metals with ease, and its hide is nearly impervious to mundane damage.

Far more than these mundane combat abilities, however, the Gorgon's deadliness stems from its viral nature. It can "infect" and convert any biomass it encounters for its own use, destroying its victim while re-purposing their plundered cells. This includes any living creature unfortunate enough to make skin contact with the Gorgon, but it can even utilize the billions of microscopic organisms found naturally in the environment. The Gorgon uses these cells to regenerate itself, to evolve specialized adaptations on the fly, and most terrifying of all, to replicate itself infinitely. The Gorgon can create miniature versions of itself that spread exponentially, each one nearly as strong as the original and all fighting with mindless ferocity. If left unchecked, the Gorgon can easily replicate an army in a matter of minutes just using the microbes floating in the air around it.

## Weaknesses

The Gorgon is extremely resilient, but has few long-range attack options and can have difficulty reaching particularly evasive opponents. Many of its powers rely on having biological cells on hand to convert to its use; if it is in a sterile environment, it cannot replicate or adapt itself without cannibalizing its own biomass.