"Why do you want to kill me?"
- Batman
Gwen didn't know how the Headhuntress got her name. All she knew was her enemy was some kind of intergalactic pirate, sailing through space looking for another planet to turn into her personal hunting ground.
Unfortunately for Gwen, she was about to find out the truth.
Nothing about Headhuntress seemed completely human. Her bipedal stature wasn't much different from Gwen's, but her dark green hair and her violet skin gave her a distinctly unearthly appearance. Her eyes were closer to a cat's, something vaguely like snake scales grew in small layers around her cheeks, and thick steel rings covered most of her neck. Gwen could only guess what was going on underneath all of her rugged combat armor.
Crouched on top of an air vent on the rooftop, Spider-Woman looked down at her alien opponent.
"Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?" she joked. "Or is that some kind of fashion trend where you're from?"
"At least I'm willing to show my face, Spider-Woman," the Headhuntress said in return.
Headhuntress aimed her mechanical spear and fired a proton charge toward the vent. Spider-Woman nimbly avoided being atomized and landed behind Headhuntress. She used her webs to pull the spear straight out of Headhuntress' hands and discarded it toward the opposite end of the roof. The two fought in close quarters, trading punches and kicks until Headhuntress pulled a set of cube-shaped objects from her belt.
The blocks flew upward on their own miniature propulsion and spread through the air. Aligning themselves into a diamond formation, they generated a barrier of laser grids around Spider-Woman. Gwen jumped backwards and gracefully arched through a wide opening in the grid. The cubes quickly re-aligned themselves and tried to catch her again, but she easily slipped through each time. Gwen was growing more confident, while the Headhuntress was growing more impatient.
Curling her fingers, Headhuntress controlled the cubes so they formed smaller and more complex grids. The lasers shifted their formation again, and Gwen started to jump through the gap. She was almost clear when Headhuntress twisted her wrist and pulled the grid into a knot.
One of the strings caught under Gwen's chin, abruptly whipping her head forward while the rest of her body was still spinning backward.
Her neck snapped, ending her life in an instant. Her body should have crumpled straight back to the ground, but the laser strings shifted themselves and held her up like a glowing safety net.
Headhuntress sighed to herself as she walked closer. Spider-Woman limply dangled upside-down by her legs.
"What a shame," the alien supervillain said. "I didn't expect your species would be so frail. I would have liked to collect a live sample."
She stopped when Gwen was just in front of her. Her expression changed to something more anxious as her fingers brushed over the material of Spider-Woman's mask.
"Now let's see what an Earthling female looks like."
She pulled the mask away and uncovered Gwen's face. Some of her blonde hair uncurled toward the ground, while the rest was held back by her black hairband. Her closed eyes made her appear like she was sleeping, but her head was bent at a slightly awkward angle.
"Interesting," Headhuntress said. "The physiology is a bit bland, but certainly not ugly. I think you'll do."
She prodded Gwen's neck with both of her hands, delicately feeling around the shattered vertebrae.
"Good. The fracture is almost symmetrical. The transfer shouldn't be too messy."
She pulled a tiny silver from her belt, removing the cap from the object's tip. It was like an alien pen, or a futuristic tube of lipstick. She carefully drew a straight dotted line around Gwen's neck.
After she put the cylinder away, she typed something into the transponder on her wrist, sending a signal to her automated ship hiding in Earth's orbit. A large canister materialized beside her. Its airtight lid folded open to reveal a compartment for a single occupant.
Headhuntress lifted a knife from her belt and cut through the back of Gwen's costume. The laser strings gradually turned her over and moved her limbs so Headhuntress could more easily peel the garment off of her lifeless frame. It was broad daylight, and Gwen would have been stripped down for all to see if it weren't for the remote location far above the city streets.
The strings lowered Gwen into the canister. The metallic device sealed shut, keeping the body warm and fresh while it ran its decontamination procedures.
Headhuntress punched another command into her transponder. She disappeared into a beam of light, returning to the ship with her prize.
Synthetic bacteria washed over Gwen's face. Her long blonde hair floated in front of her eyes, free from the forces of gravity. It was like someone had sealed a fishbowl over her head, but she was able to breathe the mysterious liquid. She peered through the tinted glass as her vision slowly focused.
Several feet away from her was a large holographic mirror trimmed with dozens of tiny lights, like a cybernetic vanity dresser. A figure leaned in front of the mirror with her back toward Gwen. She was mumbling convoluted equations to herself, occasionally swaying back and forth, hourglass curves wrapped in form-fitting black and white spandex.
It took Gwen a minute to realize she was looking at her own behind.
In a panic, she realized most of her body wasn't where it should be. She had been reduced to a head in a jar, kept alive with advanced alien technology. There was nothing below her neck other than a metal collar that kept her secured to base of the fluid-filled container. Glancing to her sides, she saw she was only one of countless other female captives, each taken from a different far off planet.
The figure stopped when she sensed Gwen was awake. She pulled down the hood of the Spider-Woman costume, uncovering her dark green hair. She turned toward Gwen, revealing a familiar face.
The body was unmistakably Gwen's, but the head belonged to Headhuntress. Most of her alien features were the same, but her complexion had changed just enough so she matched Gwen's skin tone, integrating the genetic information that cycled between her head and Gwen's body. A steel collar hid the seam line on her surgically reconstructed neck.
"What did you do? Let me out of here!" Gwen gurgled from her jar. Her vocal chords had been left intact.
The Headhuntress grinned.
"This is what I do every time I find a new planet. I collect one body from the planet's dominant species and make it my own. It allows me to be perfectly evolved for every environment no matter what world I travel to. I keep the specimens alive in case I need to glean them for information."
The lights around the holographic mirror grew dim as the more powerful interior lighting switched on. Along the wall behind Headhuntress, opposite to the shelves of living heads, were rows of cryo-coffins holding decapitated bodies with steel connectors around their necks. It was a wardrobe of alien women of every size and build, from every corner of the universe, some wearing complex clothing and armor that defied all earthly science. Each body on one wall had a corresponding head on the other.
In the second row, third from the left, was an empty storage tube displaying an icon for Gwen's planet.
"I needed an Earth-body for my collection, and you were the first option to present herself," Headhuntress said as she moved closer toward Gwen.
"You won't get away with this!" Gwen shouted inside her jar, causing air bubbles to froth around her mouth.
"That's what they always say at first," Headhuntress replied coldly. "And they're always wrong." Her eyes glanced toward the other rows of heads. They stared back at her like sad porcelain dolls, reserved to their terrifying fate.
The Headhuntress pressed the tips of her fingers against the top of Gwen's jar. Gwen's eyes grew wide as she felt a sudden tugging sensation, as if something were being gently pulled from the deepest regions of her mind. Headhuntress lifted her hand and smiled.
"Ah, so you're Gwen Stacy of New York City. Your phonetic system isn't as complex as some of the other cultures I've encountered."
She moved away from Gwen, returning to her mirror. Gwen wanted to jump out of her glass prison and strangle Headhuntress with her non-existent hands, but the best she could do was grit her teeth and fume.
"Now that I'm properly equipped," the Headhuntress said, "I think it's time I learned more about this place called 'Earth.'"
She adjusted the hood of her costume as she chuckled softly.
"Don't get too jealous, girls," she taunted over her shoulder. "I'll still wear the rest of you when I need to."