Midsummer Night’s Scream, Part 1

**Midsummer Night's Scream, Part 1** is the eleventh Season 2 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the forty-fifth episode overall. It is the first half of a two-part episode.

## Summary

The Puffies plan a fun haunted attraction in the Vinebush Forest, but Leonardo uses this opportunity to get rid of Leeko by scaring them himself.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Milly
* Manny
* King Leonardo
* Tommy

### Secondary

* Beatrice
* Bubbles
* Chef Peppermint
* Chief Gordy
* Daisy
* Felix
* Gamba
* Gene
* Madeline
* Mayor Bay Brittleton
* Moonlight Man
* Mr. Ghost (*debut*)
* Narrator
* Parker
* Professor Antico
* Snowdrop
* Whitehead
* Viruses (*no dialogue*)
* Various unnamed Puffy villagers

## Episode summary

The episode begins out in the Usapian countryside, where Leeko and the kids are playing a game of soccer while Milly reads nearby. During the game, Leeko is accidentally kicked into the woods by Manny, prompting Milly to go and get him. After finding Leeko, Milly proceeds to leave, but gets lost. She then steps on a tripwire that causes a puppet resembling a ghost to swing out at her, giving Milly a good scare. It is then revealed that Mayor Bay set this trap up to practice his scaring skills for the upcoming "Spook-Out". Later on, the kids walk through Puffy Town reading a flyer prompting the Spook-Out, and notice all of the adult Puffies talking about it; relishing the opportunity to give the kids a good scare and saying it will make their childhoods complete. Milly has her doubts, but the others tell her to lighten up a bit and she agrees to give the event a try, intent on not letting herself be spooked. Meanwhile at Castle Leonardo, King Leonardo is outraged that he was not invited to the Spook-Out, and decides he will show them up by hosting his own. He sets out to order a monster from Nebula Enterprises to help with the task, but N.L.E refuses to send him anything due to his uncollected debt, leaving Leonardo to fend for himself this time.

That night, Milly and the rest of the kids head to the edge of the woods where they formally enter the Spook-Out set up by the adults. Gamba is picked to go in first, but almost immediately comes running right back out in a panic, setting a new record for shortest time spent in the Spook-Out. Seeing this, Milly resolves to go next to make it all the way through and picks Leeko to go with her, while Manny follows suit as to not get left behind. As they make their way along the path, Leeko steps on another tripwire which causes a ghost puppet to drop. Manny tries to run for it, but Milly stops him and points out the ghost is a fake. Chief Gordy follows closely behind and admires the ghost puppets that pop up, when he encounters one that was not originally in the plans. Believing it to be a real ghost, he runs off in a panic, but the ghost in question was just Tommy in a sheet. He and King Leonardo plan on hijacking the event in order to make the Puffies believe there are real ghosts in the woods, and as several of the adults start running out of the woods and relaying their experiences, this plan starts to work and the main group waiting outside makes a run for it.

As this happens, Milly starts to lose her nerve, but remains determined, especially when seeing that Leeko is still enjoying himself. When encountering a series of floating blue lights, Milly chucks a rock into the bush which inadvertently hits Tommy and presses forward. Seeing this, King Leonardo grows more determined than ever to scare them. As they continue, Milly and Manny comment on Leeko's apparent lack of imagination, as he remains as carefree as ever. At that moment, Tommy tries his ghost trick again to scare them and it nearly works, but Leeko jumps onto Tommy and pulls him down. Before Milly can recognize him, however, Tommy runs off and disappears into the woods. Tommy breathes a sigh of relief, but soon realizes he, too, is now lost in the spooky woods. In a panic, he runs into King Leonardo and scares him, causing the king to smack Tommy repeatedly with his hammer. When Tommy reveals it's only him, King Leonardo gives him a few more whacks for good measure. After assuring himself that there are no real ghosts in the woods, King Leonardo turns around and sees a creature wearing a jack-o-lantern standing on the hood of the Royal Racecar. After scaring both Leonardo and Tommy away, this creature is revealed to be Leeko, and Milly is relieved to have finally gotten rid of the two of them.

Milly, Manny, and Leeko manage to make it out of the woods and reach the graveyard mentioned as part of the tour. Leeko points them to a bunch of arrow signs which they presume to be directing them to the prize Professor Antico buried for anyone brave enough to get this far. They end up finding the buried treasure and let Leeko open it, revealing a medal with a Puffy superhero on it and a note commending the kids' bravery. Leeko celebrates, but Milly and Manny are disappointed, having expected a better prize. The celebration is cut short, however, when a sudden storm begins, prompting the group to take cover in a nearby abandoned mansion they did not notice before. As they try to enter, a sudden gust of wind kicks up from inside which leads to Manny being stranded outside the house while Milly and Leeko are locked inside. Milly directs Manny to go and get help and he runs off. On the way, he runs into Moonlight Man and recruits the cloaked Star Warrior to help him get Milly and Leeko out of the house. Meanwhile, Leeko and Milly try to stay strong, but are met by a glowing apparition which forms from several small lights. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as a narrator sets up the scenario for the beginning of the next episode: Midsummer Night’s Scream, Part 2.

## Trivia

* This is the third two-part episode of the Leeko series and the third two-part episode in Season 2.
* This, along with the next episode, is the first Halloween-themed episode of the series.
* The thirteenth episode in *The Beginning* series to not feature a Copy Ability.
* This is the last episode to air in 2003.
* This episode reveals Daisy and Whitehead’s relationship.
* In this episode, Milly and many other characters insist there are no such things as ghosts, despite seeing a real ghost (Oorameshia) in a prior episode Midnight At Leo’s Castle.