 Recent
Events
The following events have been highlighted as having special significance
for Joshua Blackthorne since joining the mid-west evidence response
team. Please see the Timeline to place these incidents in context.
26 September 2000
Joshua Blackthorne is assigned as Assistant Special Agent in Charge
to the mid-west evidence response team. The first of the Joker cards
arrives. Blackthornes believes that it is intended for him.
27 September 2000
Joshua assists Jane Munroe in the autopsy of Jenson Gilgoolie.
Blackthorne leaps to the horrific conclusion that an insect of some
kind was living in Gilgoolie's skull. He is badly shaken by this
event.
28 September 2000
The University of Texas at Dallas inform Joshua they wish to award
him an honorary degree. He is invited to the degree ceremony on
12 December.
2 October 2000
Blackthorne clashes with Artemis Black over the latter's brand
of pop psychology. Joshua thinks that Black is a quack, and is shocked
that Black has published a book of his contentious theories called
Victim Schmictim.
3 October 2000
Blackthorne is shot in the back by two psychic bullets created
by the spirit of Tic-Tac Loos. He is sent to hospital in Birmingham,
Alabama to recover.
11 October 2000
Joshua heads to Quantico to speak personally with Eisenstein regarding
the mysterious playing cards the team has been receiving.
12 October 2000
On a plane returning to Texas, Blackthorne sees his team involved
in a massive fire-fight broadcast live on CNN. Joshua's already
fragile state cannot cope with this and he collapses. The plane
is forced to turn back to Quantico where he rushed to hospital and
wrongly diagnosed with food poisoning.
19 October 2000
Joshua discharges himself from hospital. He is visited in Quantico
by the ghost of Nathan Harlow (although Joshua doesn't realise Nathan
is dead). He is later told this by Jane Munroe, and goes into denial
until he sees the footage of Nathan's death, talks to Harlow's ghost
by cell phone and meets him again in the afternoon. This is not
a good day for Joshua's grip on sanity. He is later diagnosed with
megalomania and has to take tablets to suppress the condition.
3 November 2000
At a meeting with Eisenstein in Wichita, the truth about the evidence
response teams is revealed. Joshua is later rushed back into hospital.
It is found he has a very serious stomach ulcer that is exacerbated
by stress.
6 November 2000
Blackthorne is released from hospital.
8 November 2000
Blackthorne learns that there is a mole operating within evidence
response.
12 November 2000
Blackthorne accidentally watches the Discovery Channel special,
Discovering Artemis Black. His ulcer immediately starts acting
up, and he has a blazing row with the network over how they could
air such drivel. He manages to be talked into appearing on a head-to-head
talk show with Black on an unspecified date.
14 November 2000
Blackthorne's ulcer acts up again and he is rushed into hospital
in Des Moines - just in time to avoid a nasty fight with a group
of cultists. A theory is formed that Blackthorne possesses some
sort of gastric danger sense.
16 November 2000
Joshua is discharged from hospital and travels to Grand Fawkes,
North Dakota to particpate in case DVL017.
He meets Wendell Wells for the first time.
20 November 2000
Along with the rest of the group, Joshua battles a werewolf in
the wilds of North Dakota. He is nearly killed.
18 November 2000
Joshua is back in hospital with his ulcer
2 December 2000
Josh is out of hospital and flying to Kahoolawe where he meets
the Stones, discovers that Jane has reincarnated Nathan Harlow into
the body of a 60 year old Hawaiian and has to out-run a river of
molten lava as the volcano explodes. This is not good for his fragile
consitution.
4 December 2000
On his return to Wichita from Hawaii, Joshua's ulcer acts up again
and he is taken to hospital.
9 December 2000
Joshua's startlingly ill health becomes a source of grave concern
for his doctors. He undergoes major abdominal surgery to solve the
mystery of his rectal bleeding. Joshua is placed on long term sick
leave and Artemis Black becomes the mid-west team's new Assistant
Special Agent in Charge. This news is unlikely to speed Joshua to
a swift recovery.
12 December 2000
Joshua travels to Dallas, Texas to collect an honorary doctorate
from the university. He determines that this will be his last case
for evidence response, and that he will retire from the service.
Although he has told Eisenstein that he is leaving on health grounds
and to pursue other interests, he has actually become disillusioned
with the work, and believes that the team is simply being manipulated
by its superiors. He hopes to work outside the system.
Joshua agrees to break in three new agents (Philip McKraken, Jack
Burchill and Bradley Ecks) on this last day. In the hotel before
the ceremony he encounters Veronica Cunningham who makes at pass
at Joshua. When he refuses her advances she determines to take revenge.
At the degree ceremony it is revealed that Veronica is actually
some sort of sorceress. She passes Blackthorne an enchanted tarot
card that turns him to stone.
Despite the efforts of Jane Munroe, Cunningham is released without
providing the means to undo this spell. The petrified body of Blackthorne
is taken to the team's Wichita HQ, and it is hoped that he can eventually
be restored. Despite being petrified Joshua remains aware of his
surroundings, although he cannot communicate with anyone.
24-25 December 2000
Joshua's petrified form attends the evidence response Christmas
party in Beverley Hills.
See Also:
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