Thornheart

Thornheart, also known as The Consul, was the adviser to Wallace Breen and his second in command during the Combine occupation. He is also the grandfather of Nathan Johnson. He was a high ranking member of the Clandestine Company. He is the main antagonist of City 17 Street.

History
The Consul acted as the adviser and second-in-command to Wallace Breen and helped create his public image as a trusting administrator with the earth citizens' best interests at heart. In 2007 the Consul operated at a facility in City 14, which was raided by his two grandsons Nathan Johnson and Monty Johnson and their friend Sarah Woods. The Consul captured them and placed them in a pool with other citizens to be eaten by alien sharks. But Nathan managed to produce a grenade and threw it at the Consul's control panel, which blew it up and freed them from the pool. Nathan, Monty and Sarah then wired the facility to blow and escaped before it was destroyed. The Consul was presumed dead in the destruction, however he had in fact survived and fled to City 17 to report to Breen.

After the downfall of the Combine the Consul managed to cover up his involvement with their operations in City 17. Managing to profit from their downfall, he retired away from City 17 and started a new life.

Five years after the Combine's downfall, the Consul had two granddaughters and masked himself as a cuddly grandfather and gentleman. When Nathan discovered his whereabouts, he plotted revenge but decided against it when realising the Consul was his grandfather also.

In 2015 his granddaughter Sandra was kidnapped by Sinister Co.

In the following years the Consul became seriously ill and required constant medical treatment. He ended up getting his own private room at a hospital where he became a permanent resident and sold up his home. In 2016 (and nearly nine years since the downfall of the Combine) Nathan and Sarah went into the Consul's room at the hospital, where at this point he was beyond recognizable due to deterioration from his unknown illness. They questioned him over a plot by the mysterious Clandestine Company known as "Endgame". The Consul was very weak at this point, but managed to jot down an address to an office of his nearby, where a computer contained files on their upcoming plans. At that moment troops working for Wallace Breen began to raid the hospital for the Consul. Activating a remote device, Consul told Nathan and Sarah to escape in his car which is parked at the back of the building. Nathan and Sarah escaped to the car after fighting through Breen's Troops, only to witness the Consul's hospital room being blown to bits. They then used his car to escape and find his office to receive the data. Consul survived the explosion, and arrived at his home where he was put on Combine life support, which slowly stripped away his humanity and made him look less human overtime. Looking to find the key to immortality, he developed a new zombie virus and unleashed it on the public. His plans were stopped by Stephanie, and his life support was destroyed and Consul presumably died. But his granddaughter Polly arrived, and restarted his machine and revived Consul from the dead.

In order to evade death as his decaying body was again killing him, the Consul used Combine technology to transfer his mind into a Combine Advisor. However, Polly messed with the machine, which caused him to be transferred into that of an Antlion subspecies. Thornheart considered suicide due to his new horrific insect like appearance, but took advantage of the Antlion biology by reproducing through the use of egg laying, which he plotted to build his own army of human-antlion hybrids.

Several months later, the Consul impregnated most of his own family and associates with the alien eggs, which caused them to mutate into grotesque grub monsters. Nathan returned to City 17 to prevent Thornheart initiating his invasion, and managed to destroy him and the rest of his grubs at his headquarters.

A decaying and rigid Thornheart was imprisoned at Nova Institute for his crimes over the years, and was left to suffer for his actions in the past, although he was determined to one day escape. Thornheart later got kidnapped by Doctor Orwell and held at his hospital the Murkoff Institute, where Thornheart received experimentation.

Personality
The Consul was cold and ruthless. A master deceiver he was able to put on the image as a warm and friendly gentleman. He advised Wallace Breen on putting on a mask to make people trust him during his time as administrator.

The Consul's ruthlessness was shown when he was willing to allow his own grandsons Nathan and Monty to be killed and displayed lack of empathy for their situation.

After the Combine's downfall he began to use his image as a friendly and warm man, which helped distance his previous alliance to them. It is unclear however if he had actually mellowed, as he showed affection to his two granddaughters, although this again could have just been clever manipulation on his part.

Despite being a deceiver for many years, the Consul did help give Nathan and Sarah the whereabouts to classified information about the Clandestine Company, although this was mainly due to him not having long to live.

Trivia

 * The Consul was a cut character from Half-Life 2, who was the predecessor to Wallace Breen. See here for more details.
 * In a draft script for "Pool of Death", Consul was originally written as Wallace Breen, which established his power in City 14. Following his defeat, this motivated him to transfer to City 17 and start over again.

Appearances

 * City 17 Street
 * "Pool of Death"
 * "Project Endgame"
 * "A Series of Unforeseen Consequences"
 * The Husky's Resurrection (mentioned)