Labor Days

**Labor Days** is the twenty-eighth Season 1 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the twenty-eighth episode overall.

## Summary

Leonardo tricks the Puffies into working at a factory, where they unwittingly assemble parts for the Snowzilla Robot.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Milly
* Manny
* King Leonardo
* Tommy

### Secondary

* Beatrice
* Bubbles
* Chef Peppermint
* Chief Gordy
* Felix (*no dialogue*)
* Gamba (*no dialogue*)
* Gene
* Helios & Luna
* Hover
* Lady Chanter
* Madeline (*no dialogue*)
* Marvin
* Mayor Bay Brittleton
* Miss Yuubin
* Moonlight Man
* Parker
* Professor Antico
* Sir Chanter
* Sir Pathogen
* Snowdrop
* Snowzilla Robot (*debut*)
* Whitehead (*no dialogue*)
* Viruses (*no dialogue*)
* Various unnamed Puffy villagers

## Episode summary

The episode begins out in the grasslands around Puffy Town, as Milly and Professor Antico walk together down a road discussing work/life balance, while Manny and Leeko follow behind. Meanwhile, at Castle Leonardo, an unusual shipment arrives through the Monster delivery system creating a large pile of mechanical pieces in the throne room. After some confusion, King Leonardo is reminded by Gene that he had ordered a "factory starter kit" which - once assembled - would allow him to use Puffy labor to complete a "secret project". A short time later, the Viruses clear away a small section of forest just outside of town to make way for the factory's building site as Leonardo oversees construction. Most of the residents of Puffy Town gather to watch the proceedings, murmuring about what scheme the king may be up to this time. King Leonardo and Tommy drive forward in their Tank car to greet the crowd and address them, explaining that an "industrial revolution" is coming to Puffy Town, and that the Puffies are invited to show up tomorrow to "witness the future". Having never seen a factory before, the villagers jump at the opportunity and put on the uniforms provided to them. Naturally, Milly has doubts about the operation, but is unable to dissuade the others and goes along for the moment.

The next day, the Puffy Town residents awake to discover in shock that the factory is already complete is creating a massive cloud of pitch-black smoke in the air above its site. Shortly after, the factory siren begins to sound, and the villagers rush to the entrance to check it out. Once assembled and in uniform, Tommy lets the crowd in and they inspect the factory floor in awe. Leonardo then appears on a television screen in the room and orders them to work. Tommy acts as a taskmaster to the Puffies as the assembly line whirs into life. Leeko, Manny, Helios, and Luna join in too, seeing the whole thing as a game. Milly runs in to try to get them to stop, but is unsuccessful, and instead complains to Tommy and Leonardo about the questionable ethics of this situation, but they predictably brush her off. As the work continues, the smoke pouring from the factory begins to smother the surrounding countryside.

As the Puffies continue to work, they begin to become hypnotized by the repetitive labor. In an effort to keep them perpetually at the assembly line, automated food trays are brought in to keep the Puffies fed as they work. Due to Leeko's particular food requirements, the tray bots near him break down, causing him to be thrown onto the assembly line and knocked unconscious. Milly pleads futilely to get him out as he continues down the line, while dangerous machine parts just barely avoid hitting him. Milly pulls the master lever on the factory floor to shut everything down, and Leeko is ejected from the assembly line relatively unharmed. Milly then tries to get everyone to stop working, but they refuse to listen to her. Utterly dejected, Milly and Leeko leave the factory, but just before they go home, the factory shift ends and the villagers leave with the appliances they were promised. Back home, Milly is unable to get through to her parents about the factor conditions, since Manny brought them his appliances and told them he had fun. At that moment, another siren sounds and many of the same Puffies return for the night shift, foregoing sleep in the process.

After another failed attempt to get the Puffies to their senses, Milly runs into Antico, who has managed to avoid the hypnosis. After dissuading Milly from her current tactics, Antico mentions how polluted the rain has become as a result of the factory smoke. Milly runs a chemical analysis on the rain and confirms his suspicions. She runs out and finds the forests and meadows around town have all withered away in the choking pollution. Milly was saddened at the sight, but Moonlight Man shows up and explains he saw this coming, but did nothing so the Puffies could learn their lesson the hard way. He also warns Milly that they are unknowingly assembling something sinister in the factory. With this information, Milly re-enters the factory pretending she is there to work. Once at the assembly line, she rouses Manny's curiosity about the parts he is working on and the two of them, along with Leeko, Helios, and Luna, sneak into the factory's inner workings to find out. Once in the back room, they discover a giant robotic monster being completed. King Leonardo and Tommy step into the Snowzilla Robot's cockpit, intent on piloting it to destroy Leeko. In a rush of anger at being tricked into building such a thing, Manny runs after it, not knowing that it is about to activate.

Seeing Manny run in, King Leonardo decides to test the robot out on him. Manny, however, manages to slip inside a crane and use a girder to knock the robot around. Leonardo retaliates by using the robot's frost breath to freeze the crane solid, but Manny manages to escape. While trying to catch the kids, King Leonardo mistakenly crashes through one of the factory walls, revealing the robot to the Puffies at the assembly line, snapping them out of their stupor. As the Puffies escape, Leeko fights the robot, vacuum-mouthing its ice breath to gain the Ice Copy Ability. After failing to subdue the robot directly with his ice breath, Milly instructs Ice Leeko to target the factory's furnace instead. He does so, causing the furnace to shatter as the kids escape. King Leonardo and Tommy are left to sizzle for a moment in the resulting fire that spreads through the factory floor until they are launched off into the distance by a massive explosion that destroys both the factory and the robot. Some time later, Milly and company are monitoring the local ecosystem as it recovers from the pollution. Leeko picks one of the flowers to admire it, but the episode anecdotally with Leeko being stung by a bee resting inside; a micro-example of why it is not wise to mess with nature.

## Trivia

* Second episode of *The Beginning* series to feature the Ice Copy Ability.
* This is the second episode where Leeko cries, though he only sheds tears.
* This is one of the several episodes that have ecosystem preservation as a theme since this episode is about industrial pollution.
* Professor Antico is the only known Puffy to not work at the factory.