Melody Powers is a secret agent and assassin who works for an unnamed government agency. Her mission is to make the world safe from communism, and her method of doing so is usually bloody and violent in nature.

Her technique seems to be to seduce her targets, have sex with them, and then kill them after the fact with bullets or explosives, depending presumably on her mood. On one notable mission, she took out twelve Russians, five Chinese, three or four Cubans, and "Tonio" of uncertain origin.

Daria's reading of a Melody Powers story at the newly opened coffee house inspired a near-riot as her audience ran out into the street to storm the Russian embassy. Fortunately, there is no Russian embassy in Lawndale. Her reading of another Melody Powers story to Mrs. Blaine at the Better Days Retirement Home met with a far more subdued reaction, likely because Mrs. Blaine is deaf.