Cornelius' exploits in the job had netted him a lot of things. Friendship of a sort with the odd folk who'd worked with him, millions in diamonds, and a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest that was quite pleasant. For a while. Then he began to notice that it wasn't going away, and that he could, in fact, feel something similair but much weaker coming from other peoples chests if he got close enough. Real close, to the point he could almost touch them, but there was definitely something there that he hadn't been able to feel before. It felt... good, like a warm hug or a well-brewed cup of tea, and Cornelius really liked it. He felt irritated, somewhat, at how it always seemed just out of reach, even if he was right up next to someone, skin brushing against skin, as if there were a wall he could never overcome. Until he did. As Cornelius was walking the streets of Johannesburg, making plans to get back home, he came across an injured child sitting on the ground, a nasty looking scrape on their knee, and stopped to help. That was when he felt it. The warmth built up in his chest flowed down to his hands, and he could feel the warmth in the child respond. A pink aura, like mist in it's appearance, gently flowed from Cornelius' hands and wrapped around the childs knee, the warmth present in both of them seeming to diminish slightly as the wound was rapidly closed. Trying not to think about what happened, Cornelius raised a finger to his lips to shush the child and left, now somewhat more hurried in his attempts to leave Johannesburg.

following the incident at the farm, Cornelius was hoping for some much needed R&R, and maybe a way home. No such luck, once again, a portal opened and dragged him back to that weird inbetween world he got stuck in after that last job he was given, like some cosmic freelancer. The only way out of this, at this point, would be figuring out where the heck he had ended up, and why. Cornelius was not good at that, unfortunately, most of his life consisted of people just handing him the answers he needed on a silver platter, after he turned the charm up enough. His good looks and knack for figuring out what people wanted was turning into somewhat of a drawback, now that he really needed to do these things for himself. Oh well, if there was one thing Cornelius was always good at, it was figuring things out on the fly. The first thing he needed to do was figure out how to not be cursed without a chance to fight back again. The energy dwelling in his body, giving him the ability to heal injuries, felt strong, surely he could figure out a way to use it to protect himself in the future? Surely enough, a bit of time and effort allowed him to figure out that he could, like when he healed, move the energy about, and with a bit of effort, push it out of his body. After a couple weeks, he could consistently put up a hot-pink shield, and a pretty sturdy one too. Hopefully he wouldn't be caught off-guard again.

Cletus was a nice guy, all things considered. He wasn't super rich or swanky, but staying with him for a bit to fix up his leg wasn't a bad time. Sure, the bright pink cast probably didn't do his reputation around town any wonders (or maybe it did? Cornelius wasn't all that familiar with American small towns, surprising as that may sound.), but it guaranteed he'd be able to walk on it again. Eventually. In like a few weeks. Until then, Cletus was gonna have to keep that cast on. He seemed pretty grateful, though, and ended up cooking up some Magical Cocaine for Cornelius, which turned out to be his pay from the job. The ability to make magic cocaine. That was honestly pretty awesome, if Cornelius thought about it, he'd have to see about keeping in touch with Cletus.

After Cornelius got home, his own payment came in. He managed to get that pink mist he made to adhere to his brass knuckles, and damn if that wasn't nifty. He wasn't some super soldier or Captain America type, but his brass knuckles seemed to hit harder and take less damage from use with the pink mist inside, and the best part was, it wasn't even visible once he used it. All he needed was to figure out how to use this on other weapons, and he'd be the toughest guy in town. Maybe he could even use it on guns at some point, they certainly hit hard enough already to be worth it. He'd just need to get a license...