I was contacted late one evening by a hero calling himself Dorian Thromme. It didn’t sound much like a heroic name, but when I asked, he explained that his father had been known as The Swordsman, and that he had decided not to separate his life, heroic and otherwise, but instead to simply be a hero and nothing more. He quickly brushed off my attempts to learn more about him, and asked if I had any interest in the 5th Column. When I answered in the affirmative, he opened up about his family’s past. His grand father had lived in Germany, and had fought the Nazis. His father, The Swordsman, also known as Gabriel Thromme, had taken up his father’s sword and sought to expose the dormant 5th Column in the years before the Rikti invasion. Gabriel had died alongside so many heroes in the months following May 23rd 2002. Dorian, almost two years after his father’s death, has now taken up the family sword and fight against Nazis and all of their offspring.

Dorian had been working closely with Wes Schnabel trying to shut down some of the more recent recruiting centers of the 5th Column. Wes had come up with a name during one of his recent missing persons cases, Col. Adler. He’d then suggested to Dorian that he contact the Front Page in hopes that any bad press on the 5th would help slow their movement.

I met with Dorian Thromme at the train station in Kings Row. “We have a lead on Col. Adler and a recruitment facility here in the Row,” he said. “Its in a warehouse in the garment district. Wes wants us to destroy any propaganda and equipment they’ve got, as well as try to take Adler into custody.” He smiled and touched the hilt of his sword. “Stay close to me, Mr. Meeks, and try to stay out of trouble.”

The warehouse had fallen into disrepair, and I had my doubts at the whether it would be worth the effort to try to trace the owner to the 5th Column as they probably weren’t here legally. The presses were running, stacks of pamphlets rolling off the conveyor belts. All the equipment was being manned mostly by kids, who scattered the moment they saw Dorian in his leather combat gear. “I’d love to think my reputation preceded me,” Dorian chuckled, “but more likely they simply have no conviction in this cause.” We left the presses running and moved in deeper to where Dorian expected the soldiers might be waiting.

And waiting they were. I took the advice given to me earlier to heart and stayed well out of danger. With the number of bullets flying, I kept my head down and waited for the all clear signal, except on the rare occasion my desire for a photograph exceeded my desire to be safe. Dorian’s sword, obviously imbued with some magical or technological enhancements, deflected projectiles, rockets and bullets both, with ease, and Dorian himself swayed from side to side dodging what his sword didn’t stop.

The numbers were against him, but even the armor clad and weapon wielding 5th Column soldiers didn’t seem to have the will nor the training to overcome a hero on a mission. Guns split in half, and ammo belts cut from their waists, black and gray clad minions turned and ran faster than reinforcements took their place.

Col. Adler walked out with his hands raised in defeat, begging Dorian to go lightly. And after getting some information from him about another 5th Column base, Dorian lightly smashed him on the head with the hilt of his sword, sending the Colonel into unconsciousness.

With the address for the building under the control of the 5th, we called back to Wes Schnabel to let him know what we had. He was able to confirm that some of his sources had spoken about this abandoned office the Column was planning on using to launch attacks against the city. Now that we had the address, it was time to act. Dorian agreed to do the work, and Wes said we should be on the look out for a Captain Hanisch who was supposedly in charge of this building, the attacks to come, and was apparently responsible for a bombing the week prior.

The first seven floors of the office were empty, except for the occasional rat. This was common among factions that took over buildings in Kings Row, an empty few floors helped them remain to appear abandoned, and kept the police from ever looking too closely. If you listened in to the quiet though, the occasional footstep or voice could be heard. On the eighth floor Dorian ambushed a 5th Column patrol, and left them bound in an old janitorial closet.

The soldiers here were fewer here, but far better trained and with much more resolve than those at the warehouse. Instead of brute force, Dorian chose to employ other tactics to confuse, disorient, separate and conquer them one at a time. It was much slower progression, but leaving a trail of bound and gagged 5th Column in closets allowed us to sneak in close to Hanisch unnoticed.

“The general wants more successes like last week, gentlemen. What do we have to put on the table?” We heard the voice echo down the corridor, and waited for the replies. It seemed that the past weeks, while including a successful bombing, had been mostly defeats at the hands of various heroes. The only plans they had in action were to rebuild and recover. Dorian and I agreed that we weren’t going to get much else from these men, and he charged into the room and took them all without them being able to get off a single shot.

Dorian Thromme disappeared the moment the police arrived to take Captain Hanisch in. Right there, before they’d even finished advising him of his rights, he began to spout information like a natural spring, locations of weapons caches, training centers, and more. The city would have their hands full for quite some time following up on those leads.