PKNA 6: Spores

Spores is the sixth regular issue of PKNA. It was written by Gianfranco Cordara, and penciled by Fabio Celoni.

Synopsis
When Donald is covering for the Channel 00 doorman at Ducklair Tower, a farmer named Russell comes to talk with Angus Fangus, carrying a strange organic-looking spore. Uno uses a digital image of Angus to tell Russell to come later. They analyze the spore at 151st floor and it turns out to be the larvae of what will become an Evronian warrior. These larvaes feed off of the emotions around the land they grow in, and they grow in bog groups, which means there are more around. The only clue of the spore's procedence are sand residues, which reminds Donald that the news mentioned the army being in the desert, so he turns into the Duck Avenger and heads there, but Uno warns him that the spores have a defense mechanism consisting on a corrosive and poisonous substance.

Mike Morrighan is covering the isolation of the desert area by the army, and is "invited" to leave the area. The Duck Avenger spies soldiers Janson and Miller in exoskeletons retrieving a spore and returning to camp, but he is found by Colonel Clint E. Westcock. A soldier informs General Wisecube that they are awaiting him for the examination of the Evronian spore, and that the Duck Avenger has been arrested, to which the general says the Avenger must be treated with respect and they must cooperate with him. Westcock gets a call and grudgingly takes the Avenger to the lab where they are analyzing the spore. The scientists around the spore are poisoned by its defense mechanism and have to be taken for medial care.

The Duck Avenger calls Uno to tell him that the army seemingly knows about the Evronians, and Uno tells him it's more than that; the army has been making treaties with Evronian emissaries to make a commercial alliance, which is the same way the Evronians once tricked the people of Xerba before invading them. The Avenger tries to warn Westcock that the Evronians are evil, but cannot give proof without exposing Xadhoom's existence. Later, Janson and Miller teach the Duck Avenger how to pilot an exoskeleton. The Avenger hijacks an exoskeleton to destroy the spores and, when Westcock orders to stop him, Uno manages to enter the exoskeletons' systems (with some secret help from Wisecube) and control them to help in shooting the spores.

When the spores' defense mechanism begin corroding the exoskeletons, the heroes restore the pilots' control, but they decide to help anyways. The Duck Avenger's exoskeleton loses its legs and he is about to die among the burning and corrosion, but he's carried to safety by Janson.

Westcock wants to arrest the Duck Avenger, but he gets a letter with orders to let him go. The Avenger says goodbye and thanks Janson for his help.

Russell calls Angus to recover his "pumpkin" but Angus anglily yells him that he didn't see any pumpkin. Russell tells his dog Buck that they can keep that pumpkin as he still got plenty left.