PKNA 0/2: The Winds of Time

The Winds of Time is the second "trial" issue of PKNA. It was written by Alessandro Sisti and Ezio Sisto, and penciled by Claudio Sciarrone.

It features the first appearance of recurring villain The Raider.

Plot summary
Donald is awakened by a phone call of Scrooge McDuck, who has prospective tenants for Ducklair Tower and expects Donald to be there to greet them. Donald goes to the secret 151th floor to ask Uno a breakfast, but Uno instead turns his attention to a recording from last night that shows someone flying without means of propulsion, who entered a box storage warehouse, and while he caused extensive damage, didn't take anything.

That night, while the Duck Avenger is on patrol, Uno calls him to tell he has seen the flying crook at another box facility. The Duck Avenger goes there and tries to stop him, but is surprised from behind by what seems the crook's "twin" and knocked out. The alarm awakens the Avenger, who leaves the place.

The next morning, Angus Fangus shows in the channel 00 news the security footage of the Duck Avenger leaving the box facility. At the studio, when Lyla Lay finds the only stolen thing was an 8,3x8,3x11,7 inch box, she's perplexed. Meanwhile, Uno shows to Donald security footage of the crook vanishing in mid-air after leaving the facility. Then Uncle Scrooge arrives with the potential tenants: the Channel 00 news division. During the tour, Angus uses a different elevator than the others, so Donald takes the chanceto ask Uno to "shake him up". While checking 75th floor, Donald, Angus and Lyla talk about the stolen box, and Lyla mentions that if the Duck Avenger was an actual thief he would steal Tetragonium, a new synthetic fiber with only one sample at Duckburg Experimental Laboratories.

Meanwhile, the crook steals diamonds and an electronics store. That night, at Duckburg Experimental Laboratories, the Duck Avenger ambushes the crook, who introduces himself as the Raider, and makes him run away, but then the Raider goes back some hours in time to talk to Angus Fangus, and that night, instead of the Raider, the Duck Avenger finds Angus, Camera 9 and the police, so he must escape. The Raider goes some hours ahead in time after Angus and the police have left and steals the Tetragonium.

Uno hides the Duck Avenger from the police and mentions that when the Raider disappeared, he left behind traces of tachyon decay, so he is a time traveler. the Avenger deduces that the "twin" in their first encounter was the Raider going back some minutes in time to ambush him.

Donald thinks Lyla knows more than meets the eye, so goes with her to get some answers. After Lyla lets slip that she knows his secret identity, she tells the whole story: In the 23rd century, time travel is widely used by historians and researchers, but there also are unauthorized chrononauts like the Raider. The materials he has stolen are components to build a chronosail, a device that will allow him to change the future. The Raider seemingly works for a powerful criminal organization from 23th century, and Lyla is part of the Time Police, working against time piracy. The Raider will activate the chronosail that night, during a time storm inoccous for the population but with enough energy to activate the device.

The epicenter of the storm will pass through the most heavily secured vault of the Duckburg bank, so the Duck Avenger and Lyla try to set him a trap: the Avenger must hold him off while Lyla calls Time Police reinforcements. However, the Raider knocks Lyla out and reveals he has already called Angus to have the Avenger framed. The Duck Avenger and the Raider fight, and the Avenger takes the chance to change the chronosail with an empty box, and then destroys it. Suddenly, Lyla arrives with the rest of the Time Police, and since they are in the eye of the time storm, he cannot use time travel to escape, and is arrested. Later, when Angus arrives with Camera 9, the Duck Avenger uses Time Police technology to leave, and Angus ends as the one framed.

At Ducklair Tower, Uno asks the Duck Avenger how did the Raider fail to knock out Lyla, and the Avenger explains she is a droid, as history is too much to be kept under surveillance by agents of flesh and blood (that's also why the evrongun didn't work on her in the previous issue). Uno claims that a synthethic beauty like Lyla would be the ideal companion for himself, to which the Duck Avenger laughs.

Trivia

 * In later issues, the Raider's time travel device is also called chronosail, but it's clearly just his normal device and not a chronosail like the one from this issue.