Chapter Text
There were more downsides than upsides to his brand spankin' new mechanical body, but Higgs thought the indefatigable hydraulic limbs made up for quite a lot. Despite his past as a porter, shadowing Sam as he went scurrying about had pushed the limits of even his endurance, what with how punishing a pace the man set. Once Sam got into a flow state, he could cover hundreds of miles in the same time it took other porters to cover dozens, with barely a break for food or drink, let alone sleep. This husk he now called home, however, could follow Sam to the ends of this wretched earth without so much as a break in stride.
Fortunately, the body's connection to APAS's servers had given him back access to a fair few of his Amelie-given DOOMs abilities-- most crucially jumping and traveling by tar-- so Higgs rarely had cause to truly test those limits. Especially considering that guard dog Dollman was irritatingly far more aware of his surroundings than the porter, even when dangling from Sam's belt like a Tamagotchi. Typically, Higgs let the tar currents bore him along as he followed his awareness of Sam until the man paused to catch his breath rather than trudge after him on foot. It also allowed him to pick the perfect moment to surface in a sufficiently theatrical manner and bring all of Sam's wonderful, burning focus back to him alone.
Right from their very first meeting, Higgs had always felt Sam's heavy gaze like a brand upon his skin. Now that physical sensations were detached and alien in this amalgamation of tar and steel and polyethylene, the porter's acknowledgement was the only thing that seemed to cross the disconnect between his ka and faux-ha in a way that made sense anymore. And, oh, when Higgs provoked him enough to lash out, to punch and kick and claw at the UHMWPE casing protecting his delicate new innards... His eyes rolled back in his head at the memories, the anticipation of their next encounter shooting through his circuitry like a capacitor discharge. Picking up on his arousal, the cords in his abdominal tank writhed and coiled over and around each other, as eager for some action as he was.
Keyed up and raring for a fight, Higgs pulled himself back into the world of the living, making sure to surface directly behind Sam. The barometric pressure sensor on one of his circuit boards immediately alerted him of a particularly large storm closing in but Higgs brushed the warning away, entirely focused on Sam. It wasn't like timefall could destroy this body quite like the one he was born with, after all. Delighted that he had risen quietly enough to not have been noticed yet, Higgs roughly clapped both hands down on Sam's broad shoulders and squeezed.
"Sammy-boy! What a wonderful coincidence, running into you all the way out here halfway to nowhere." The terrorist crowed as Sam nearly jumped out of his skin, clamping his fingers down as the other man tried to spin around. Leaning around the cargo, Higgs gripped the packages with his right hand and slid his left down Sam's chest and up to his opposite shoulder to pull them as flush as possible. Simulating a harsh inhale as Higgs buried his artificial nose in Sam's sweat slick hair he let out a low chuckle at his and Dollman's protests, "Working hard or hardly working, sweetheart? This is a pre--tty light load for you. I'd almost think you were waitin' on little ol' me."
"Fuck off." The porter scoffed, the derision in his voice contradicted by the way he gave one last performative jerk of his shoulders before simply letting himself be held.
Tilting his head back and to the side, Higgs pouted, "And leave you out here on your lonesome with only that plastic shrink for company? Even I ain't that cruel, Sam."
"I am wood and cotton, you overgrown toaster!" Dollman objected, limbs clattering as if he was fixin' to climb Sam and take a swing at Higgs himself.
"At least toasters're useful." The terrorist snapped back, rounding Sam and making a grab for the marionette. The second Higgs' hands left Sam, however, the porter back peddled and settled into a wary fighting stance with one hand low enough to block any attempts at pulling Dollman away. Raising his own hands in mocking surrender, Higgs chuckled, "Woah there, darlin', I just wanna talk without any smartasses interruptin'. See? Not a weapon in sight."
To demonstrate-- as if it meant anything with his ability to summon arms and ghost mechs from the tar at will-- Higgs lazily twirled around, making sure to swing his hips more than necessary as he went. If he was still human he would've missed it, but his fancy, top of the line image processors tracked pupil movement and caught Sam's eyes flicking back up to Higgs' face from his ass as he finished spinning.
Well now, make that two things he appreciates about this surrogate body.
"I don't want to hear shit from you, Higgs."
"Well now, that hurts, Sam. It really, truly does." He simpered, hands pressed to his non-existent heart. The strong winds blowing his shaggy hair into his face put a slight damper on his performance, but he valiantly pushed through, "Almost as much as this is gonna hurt you."
Jumping the short distance between them, Higgs drove his right shoulder into Sam's gut just below Lou's tank and grabbed him around the waist. The unique mix of tar and machinery that made up this body was capable of deadlifting several tons; Higgs barely had to exert any effort flipping the porter back in a suplex. While the cargo saved Sam's spine from the rocky terrain, the rigging couldn't hold up to the force of impact and sent the containers spilling out across the ground. Spying bola guns in the mix, Higgs nipped their possible use in the bud by grabbing Sam's harness and tossing him towards a scattering of boulders.
Giving Sam time to recover his bearings, Higgs slowly stalked his way over to the other man rather than jumping. He could faintly hear Dollman chattering away, clearly trying to give Sam advice on how to handle the situation, but it was background noise to the porter's grunts and groans as he hauled himself up and shook himself off. Baring his teeth in a snarl that hit Higgs' transducers with a near overwhelming spark of desire, Sam braced himself for the terrorist's next move. Giving a manic grin in return-- idly glad his mouth and eyes were fake as he could feel the grit of sand begin to pelt his face-- Higgs mentally dismissed another cascade of weather alerts and spread his arms out wide.
"C'mon Sam, show me that animal you got locked up inside. Show me that anger, that rage. Despite what all your shiny new friends keep sayin', moping about on this walkabout ain't gonna do shit to help little Lou and you know it. You may have her ka safe and sound in that pod, but what about her lost ha, huh?" Higgs goads, nearly losing his footing as an exceptionally strong gust of wind buffets them, "Doing APAS's dirty work is only giving them more power to hide her so far into the Beach she'll never see the sun again."
As he suspected, mentioning his shattered daughter flipped a switch in Sam, the banked anger flaring into an inferno-- one blissfully hot enough to scald Higgs' ka. Throwing caution to the ever-worsening wind, Sam threw himself across the distance between them with reckless abandon and collided with Higgs in a pile of limbs and fury. The terrorist, caught up in the moment and Sam's arms, let himself be thrown back.
A move, in hindsight, he should've blocked instead.
In an attempt to not knock his teeth out on Higgs' abdominal tank, Sam had raised both forearms just before impact. The change in pressure from the middle of Higgs' chest to his collar bone had been enough to force his neck down between the small boulders they had landed on. The armored brace around his neck hiding the seal where his polyethylene head met his tar body worked against him, its edges forcing all their kinetic energy into where his Adam's apple should be. With a toe-curling squeal and crunch, his neck crumpled in on itself and everything went dark.
For a brief moment of blind panic, Higgs thought that was it, the mech was ruined and he would wake up back on that damn Beach, stranded and bodiless once more. But the longer he lay frozen, the more he realized his other senses were still as functional as ever. He could still hear the howling wind and harsh pants of exertion from Sam. His face's proximity and pressure sensors were also picking up the porter's punches as he wailed into Higgs. Shit, he was even still getting those damn weather alerts, albeit only hearing their pings rather than seeing them imposed over his field of vision.
Disoriented and unable to use his odradeck as LIDAR, crushed under him as it was, Higgs roughly struck out at Sam to get some breathing room. For once ignoring the other man, Higgs carefully palpated the crumpled mess before cupping his hands around the area as a makeshift brace and wobbling upright. Any attempts to remove his hands revealed one of the artificial spinal discs was completely pulverized, rendering the entire structure useless; the tar and wires were not meant to support his head's weight on their own, after all. Especially with a breach in the bodysuit that acted as his fake skin, jeopardizing the internal pressure of tar and conduction needed to keep the body fully functional.
Higgs returned his attention to his surroundings just in time to hear the crunch of dirt beneath work boots and feel the constriction of a strand whip its way around his prone form. Thankful the binding just anchored his hands to his neck rather than Sam forcing his hands down or behind his back, Higgs decided it was high time he booked it before he lost the use of this body completely. Willing himself to dip beneath the currents with a cheeky grin thrown in the general direction he hoped Sam was in, Higgs braced for the warm, cloying embrace of tar.
His smile faltered as, instead of falling back into the abyss to lick his wounds, Higgs simply rolled himself off the boulder. Even while patting himself on the back for giving his chiralgram corpse paint-- hiding any possible blushing-- as he heard Sam snort in amusement, he still had the phantom sensation of burning cheeks as he attempted to shuffle into a more dignified position. Clearly taking pity on him, Sam roughly grabbed the ropes binding his back and hauled him upright. Unfortunately, the porter didn't stop there as, with a grunt of exertion, he was thrown over Sam's shoulder.
"Wh--, h-hey, woah, hold on, Sam," Higgs sputtered, panic rising to choke him at how he had no idea which direction they were facing and no way to escape, "where're we goin', now? Sam? Sam!"
"As much as I hate to agree with the guitar gremlin, what are we doing with him, Sam? That fall clearly damaged his mecha body and the chiral haboob is practically on top of us. I doubt he'd get very far if we waited the storm out in safety. It might even take care of him for us entirely." Higgs had never before been grateful for the third wheeling doll butting in on his and Sam's conversations, but there's apparently a first time for everything.
"Exactly." Was the short response as Sam made his way to some unknown destination with confident purpose, each step sure despite the hazardous terrain and volatile weather. "I have questions he has answers to and we're never gonna get another chance like this. 'Sides, while I don't mind knocking his annoying ass out, I don't want him dead."
"Much obliged, sweetheart." Higgs firmly ignored the light feeling in his chest at the thought that Sam felt the same way about him.
An annoyed grunt and a rough jostle as Sam readjusted his grip was his only reply, the porter focused on walking. Curious despite himself if Sam was genuinely going to abandon his cargo and walk back to the nearest distro center or even the Magellan itself, Higgs reluctantly went silent. At least the position of his bound hands meant he was propped up and not constantly smacking his face into the extra batteries on Sam's backpack. It was a damn shame his vision was busted because then he'd at least have a front row seat to ogle Sam's muscular thighs and ass as compensation for the embarrassment of having eaten shit. As it was, all Higgs had was Sam's noises of exertion, the crunch of rock under foot, and the vicious wind whipping the dry shrubbery and small rocks about.
The longer he was stuck in silence, however, the more disconcerting things became; without his eyes there was no way to orient himself and the darkness, coupled with his muffled sense of touch, left Higgs feeling adrift at sea. Activating the odradeck was useless as well, the strand preventing it from unfolding even when he diverted extra power to the area, gears grinding uselessly. Higgs tried to focus on Sam's labored breathing to ground himself, but the rhythm only reminded him of the hundreds, thousands of hours he spent sprawled in the Beach's surf. As listless and limp as the other beached things in his soul-deep exhaustion, listening to the eternal tide and hoping it would give him the mercy of carrying him out to sea. Squirming in agitation, Higgs sucked in an unnecessary breath to bother Sam, but what came out of his voice box was a grinding mechanical screech. His and Sam's jostling had clearly shuffled even more wires out of place.
Sam nearly dropped Higgs at the harsh, unexpected noise, "The fuck was that?"
"I-I-I-Iiiiii doOOon't th-iiiiiin-kkkkk my-y-y nE-E-eck llllliiiiiiked tha-tha-tha-that." Higgs managed to push out of his malfunctioning speakers while he tried to find a position that shifted the wires back into place.
"Shit. Hang on, we're almost there." Sam muttered a litany of curses under his breath as he picked up the pace, risking engaging his power skeleton to get them to wherever they were going faster. His neck was already fucked six ways from Sunday, a little more damage now would just be a drop in the bucket. Higgs tightened his grip as much as he could to try bracing it better, but the steady tar leak from the neck breach had dangerously lowered the suit's internal pressure. The metal skeleton in this body was much more delicate than those of the truly autonomous ghost mechs, relying on the tar acting as supporting musculature to reach its full strength. What made for a uniquely mobile and humanistic robot did not make for a particularly robust one.
By the time Sam slowed back down Higgs could barely hear anything over the various blaring alarms he was dismissing as quickly as they appeared. Without his vision he couldn't tell what, exactly, each alert was for, but he was damn sure he could take a wild guess. Without warning, Sam heaved him off his shoulder onto something hard and flat before pushing him along the surface; his body armor scraped against it with an awful shriek as it bounced beneath his weight, indicating some kind of suspension-- had Sam somehow found a truck out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere?
"Be up front." Was all the explanation Sam graced him with before leaving, the sound of the trunk hatch closing muffling his retreating footsteps.
"ssSsa-a-A-A-AAAaaaam!" His distorted cries fell on deaf ears as he was left alone. After a brief moment of nothing, the vehicle shuddered beneath the weight of a full grown man entering the cab and a door being slammed shut by the combined force of Sam and the tempestuous wind. As the truck remained both off and stationary, Higgs realized Sam truly was going to wait out the haboob before risking moving any further rather than try and outrun it to the nearest distro center.
Well, shit. Not the most ideal of situations, but at least it gave Higgs some time to try and wiggle out of not only the strand, but the situation entirely.
As Higgs squirmed around he unfortunately had to admit Sam had gotten him pretty fuckin' good, even if most of the damage had been entirely by coincidence. The strand was well made as well, loops keeping his arms and odradeck firmly in their bent positions. His legs, however, had been mostly spared: while his thighs had been caught halfway down, the rounded curve of his speed skeleton allowed Higgs to ride one side up over the device to his hips after some undignified writhing around. The shift was thankfully enough to loosen the entire binding and, with a steadying breath to brace himself, he let go of his neck and slithered out of the rest of the strand.
Free from his binding but still as trapped as ever, Higgs stretched out his weak limbs in an effort to map the trunk. Sparks of not-quite-pain shot through him as his head limply lolled around with his movements, the misfiring of whatever disconnected wires were tumbling around in him. Unsure if the space felt unusually small because of this mech's larger size or the blindness, Higgs forcefully pushed down his discomfort with confined spaces. The last thing he needed right now was to have a breakdown.
But the weakness of his limbs, the absolute darkness, the smallness of the space, all brought to the fore memories Higgs desperately wished the chiralium- or DOOMS-induced memory loss would hurry up and take. Despite knowing he likely wouldn't hear over the thick metal and howling wind, Higgs tried once more to call out, "SSSssssssSsa-a-a-a-AAAAAaaaam!"
Nothing.
Putting all the force left in his depressurized limbs behind the swing, the terrorist smacked the steel wall between the cab and bed with another garbled cry of Sam's name.
Nothing.
The static and distortion of his voice box only got worse the more he called out, his increasingly frantic banging only exasperating the issue. Huddling against the driver side corner to put more force behind his hits made his claustrophobia worse, limp head and shoulders scraping the roof and forcing him into a hunch, curled up just like when he tried hiding from Daddy under his bed. Scooting into the middle of the truck's bed wasn't any better, either. Despite knowing he'd feel steel beneath his finger pad sensors if he but reached out to either side, the complete darkness of his malfunctioning sight left him feeling exposed, pinned like a bug beneath some unseen, omnipotent gaze; the hot-cold flush of terror at being caught, at knowing you weren't fast enough to outrun him. How could you? Daddy still made trips to the outside world on top of the exercises he did in the bunker to not go too stir-crazy. You tried to quietly copy some of his moves in your room, but you'd never run before. The wide, wide sky and the land stretching out before you scared the daylights out of you even as you ran, but as the mountains in the distance seemed to stay in the distance no matter how far you ran-- unlike anything you'd ever experienced down in the bunker, so used to anything you could need only a few steps away-- everything began to burn. Your eyes. Your lungs. Your chest. Your stomach. Your arms. Your legs. Your soul. Burning burning burning burning and he still caught you before your broken little body collapsed and you thought you knew pain thought you'd been through the worst of his beatings but oh no oh no oh no no no he was mad he was furious he beat you until your sight was gone for a week behind the swelling stuck in the dark in the hole in the ground that was your whole world that would swallow you whole before letting you go you'll never leave never be free never see the sun the moon the mountains the pyramids the whole wide world long gone fallow by the wrath of an angry God never never never never never--
"Higgs!"
--hands were on his face and he cried out for Daddy to stop please stop Daddy he'll be good--
"It's okay, Higgs, it's me, it's Sam."
--hands were touching his and a horrible static screech was blaring out and shaking his teeth and his left hand was brought up to a face and--
A half-eaten ear.
.
"§æɲŋ?" The ear-splitting screech came to an abrupt stop and Higgs belatedly realized the sound had been coming from him.
A puff of warm air blew over his face as Sam sighed in relief, "Yea, yea it's me; Higgs, you in there?"
Giving a stilted jerk of his head as he traced a finger back and forth over the ravaged ear, touch pads registering every dip and fold of scar tissue, Higgs laid his free hand on Sam's neck. Carefully moving them around until the sensors picked up a heartbeat, Higgs focused on the feel of Sam so close so willingly, pretending his eyes were simply closed. After taking a moment to calm his systems down and think, Higgs finally unfurled his odradeck for a quick environment scan. The familiar noise of its ping echoed loudly in the small space but no matter how hard he concentrated, he was still too human to read the pure data of the LIDAR results without the visual overlay giving context.
Letting the appendage deactivate and flop back down impotently, Higgs let out a frustrated groan that sounded more like a car crash than a voice.
"Right, fuck this." Sam declared, sliding his left hand away, down Higgs' arm, over his chest, and up and around his neck to the fracture. Higgs felt a strange twinge in his chest at the care Sam took in making sure he knew exactly where the porter's hand was, but he pushed it away to focus on the strange buzz of warm fingers against the edge of his outer shell instead, "I can at least try to plug some of those rattling wires back in, fix whatever broke with your voice. Not like we have much else to do 'til the storm passes."
Higgs squeezed his hands in agreement rather than attempt verbal confirmation or another nod. Sam briefly let go to awkwardly shuffle around, the sound of an active odradeck once more filling the space as the porter used its flashlight function. After finding a comfortable position, Higgs' head and upper body were carefully supported and shifted onto Sam's lap, the man having crossed his legs to brace the mechanical form. While not quite the situation Higgs was thinking of when he imagined his face pressed flush with Sam's clothed cock, he certainly wasn't complaining.
Wait, yes, he was-- why on God's green earth did this hunk of metal not have a truly functional nose? Sure, it had a filter and constantly analyzed the air and would alert him of any contaminants, but it couldn't tell him how Sam actually smelled. No matter that the sculpted nose beneath his chiralgram was rubbing against the man's fly, this body couldn't inhale the intoxicating scent of musk and sweat the way Higgs had been dreaming about since he met the porter. Frankly, APAS needed their servers torn down for this injustice alone.
"Hit me if somethin' doesn't feel right." Gentle fingers brushed his artificial hair to the side and carefully probed from the edge of the fracture to the rest of his neck. Finding the edge of the brace where it met the rest of his armor, Sam found the hidden release that detached it from the exterior collar bone joints. After fully unhooking the rest of the ruined seal of the bodysuit and rolling it down, soaking them both with a rush of the remaining tar, Sam tilted Higgs' head to get a better angle.
Nestled in the crook of Sam's right thigh as fingers finally dipped into the meat of his circuitry, Higgs felt a strangely painful gratitude to the unflappable porter. Rather than leave him to his flashbacks, Sam had not only brought him back to reality, but was attempting to undo the damage he himself had caused. Higgs had never met someone who would act with such kindness without complaint or trying to squeeze a favor out of him first. Sure, the porter had no robotics or even engineering experience and was just as likely to make things worse as he was better, but the fact that he was trying at all meant everything to Higgs. He was already head over heels in love with Sam, but even if he hadn't been before this encounter, he damn sure would've been now.
The feeling of Sam's thick fingers caressing his wiring as he began to sort through the mess sent an unusual flutter through his transducers. The feeling only got more intense as the porter began to run the loose wires through his hands to clean off the tar and read their labels. Higgs' idle odradeck began to writhe in loops like a coiling snake and his legs gave an involuntary jolt in an attempt to disperse the building feeling the terrorist was still debating if he liked or not. To Higgs' consternation, Sam immediately stopped and waited for any indication of discomfort before he began again. The soft snap of a wire slotting into place sent another, distinctly more pleasurable, shudder through him but unfortunately heralded no return of voice or vision.
With his body flayed open, the fans normally muffled by polyethylene and steel were embarrassingly loud as they kicked up a notch with every wire reconnected. Despite the first combination of connections being a bust, Higgs was not complaining about having Sam's hands in him for just a little longer. Even if the unfamiliar sensations had become more painful than pleasurable, Higgs would still wish the same; anything that kept Sam's attention and hands on him was a win in his book. The other man detached the mixed-up wires with an annoyed grunt that Higgs barely heard as the feeling of each plug being pulled sent small bursts of relief through him. Relief that didn't last as another combination was quickly attempted.
In an effort to ground himself, Higgs laced his fingers through the harness of Sam's power skeleton, gripping tight as another wave of fluttering sent his gut cords into overdrive. Their rubber casings squealed as they rubbed against the sides of the tank and each other, the sloshing of sterile solution audible in the quiet. Clearly misinterpreting his squirming as discomfort, Sam rested a steadying palm on the base of his skull as his other hand continued to interchange the wires, "Sorry Higgs, goin' fast as I can."
"Nnnnno-oh, don't stop, don't stop, Sam--" Higgs moaned as the porter hit on the right combination and his voice came back into full, crystal-clear fidelity. The thighs he was laying on twitched in surprise at the sudden, blissful outburst and his grip loosened in indecision, but Sam thankfully remained tangled up in Higgs rather than pulling away. "I don't-- that was-- I ain't ever felt somethin' like that. Keep touchin' me, please, Sam."
Even with his voice box correctly attached once more, the relieved moan Higgs let out as Sam laced the fingers of both hands through all the cords he could reach fried into static. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, Sam ran his hands up and down the wires, occasionally tugging just enough that they nearly pulled themselves out of their sockets. The cooling fans kicked up into their highest speed as Higgs shuddered in the strangest pleasure he'd ever felt, his human mind struggling to interpret sensations unique to an artificial body. His hips mindlessly rolled in a jerky grind, trying to find some relief despite this body not having any genitalia attached.
Higgs felt like every capacitor in his body was full to the brim, every resistor and diode overloaded by an unending wave of energy. He was faintly aware of the stream of babbled nonsense in-dispersed with crackled moans spilling from his voice box, but it was far away, far overshadowed by the way he felt like one massive live wire sparking at every touch and caress. Curious, slick hands branched out from his wires to run along his chassis, dipping beneath the neck of his bodysuit into the core of his body. One hand anchored itself on his upper axle while the other slipped past to fondle where the wires powering the rest of his body ran down his spine.
As Sam gently but firmly closed his hand, rubbing the tangled mass together in a bundle of electrical impulses, something white hot tore through Higgs. He lost control of his chiralgram as his whole body trembled in ecstasy, the projected visage dissolving to reveal the white skull beneath. Higgs had never felt so anchored to this body before as he rode the waves of pleasure, tightening his arms and nuzzling his way back to Sam's cock to express his gratitude. Barely having the presence of mind to reactivate his chiralgram, Higgs summoned a tentacle behind the projection of his lips, letting it loll out of his mouth as he tilted his head up just enough to "look" at Sam through his eyelashes. Clumsy but eager hands bumped into each other as both Sam and Higgs tore at the porter uniform, peeling it open just enough to pull his growing erection out.
The stuffy air in the trunk was damn near scalding with how much heat Higgs' machinery was producing and only got hotter as the terrorist set to work. He may not have an actual mouth with which to blow Sam, but his "tongue" was slick, prehensile, and as long as Higgs willed it to be. Fully wrapping it around Sam's dick, Higgs kept up the winding movement as it made its way down and around his balls to press up against his perinium. Without letting go, he took a hold of the entwined organs and began to pump his hand from root to tip.
"Fuck!" Sam anchored his hands in Higgs' hair and tugged at the synthetic material, unsure if he should shove the terrorist away or push him even closer. Higgs heard the clatter of Sam's kit as he finally gave in and slumped back against the wall with a shaky moan. Clearly desperate for more friction, the porter locked Higgs between his thick thighs.
Taking advantage of the fact that he didn't actually need to use his mouth to speak, Higgs let out a low moan of his own, "That's it baby, give me all you got. You've been so good to me, let me make you feel good, too. Yea, that's it; c'mon, I got you, darlin'."
"Higgs, Higgs, fuck, please, shit--" His fractured pleas stuttered into moans as Sam quickly tumbled over the edge, cum painting Higgs' face and dribbling onto his hand and tentacle.
Slowly unwinding from the spent cock, Higgs made sure to lap up every drop of cum he could. He retracted most of the tentacle before surging up to lick his way into Sam's mouth. To his delight Sam gave no resistance, lips immediately parting to welcome the long appendage with his own tongue. Lazy hands drifted up Higgs' body to cup his face before brushing his wrecked hair into some semblance of order. Pulling back before his lack of real lips could frustrate him, Higgs let the summoned tentacle fully retreat and flashed Sam an incredibly satisfied smirk.
Before the terrorist could do more than open his mouth to give an equally smug remark, the porter's ring terminal beeped from one of his many pockets.
"Sam, this is Tarman, are you there? That chiral storm was interfering with our connection; I couldn't get through until just now. I saw your entire cargo pop up on the lost shipment list, did something happen? The tar currents have calmed down enough that we can provide backup if you're in a tight spot. Sam?"
Muttering curses under his breath as he rummaged through his many pockets, Sam finally located the device, "Yea, I'm here. I wouldn't call it a tight spot, but we definitely have a problem; best I explain it in person."
Despite his lack of vision, Higgs still knew that Sam was staring right at him. Hopefully managing to return the stare as he leaned in enough to be picked up by the ring's microphone, he added with a cheeky smile, "I don't know Sam, those bombshell thighs of yours certainly had me in a tight spot just now."
There was a pregnant pause before all hell broke loose on the other side of the comms, multiple voices yelling over each other at the revelation of Higgs' presence. As Sam let out a bone-tired sigh of exasperation, all Higgs could do was laugh-- it seemed that, just this once, making connections was worth infinitely more than meting out revenge.