A Sun-sational Puzzle

**A Sun-sational Puzzle** is the eighteenth Season 3 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the eighty-fifth episode overall.

## Summary

King Leonardo buys air conditioners from NLE to cool off the town when it gets too hot. Later, an ozone layer monster appears.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Milly
* Manny
* Lady Chanter
* King Leonardo

### Secondary

* Aurora Man
* Beatrice
* Bubbles
* Chef Peppermint
* Chief Gordy
* Daisy (*no dialogue*)
* Felix
* Gamba
* Gene
* Helios & Luna
* Lola
* Madeline
* Marvin
* Mayor Bay Brittleton
* Moonlight Man
* Parker
* Professor Antico
* Sir Chanter
* Sir Pathogen (*no dialogue*)
* Slammer (*no dialogue*)
* Snowdrop (*no dialogue*)
* Tommy
* Twilight Man
* UooVee Rayz (*debut*)
* Viruses (*no dialogue*)
* Whitehead
* Various unnamed Puffy villagers

## Episode summary

The episode begins at Castle Leonardo, where Milly and her family - along with Leeko - are sunbathing on the castle balcony. Shortly afterward, the family starts reminiscing on old pictures of Sir Chanter and Lady Chanter when they were young, but during this, Leeko notices that something is off with Lady Chanter's face, and Milly points out that her mother is starting to get wrinkles. Lady Chanter panics and immediately ushers everyone back inside to escape the sun's rays. Meanwhile, King Leonardo is also sunbathing, but his skin has been severely burned in the process. It takes a minute for Leonardo to realize this after Tommy shows him his reflection. Outraged at this turn of events, King Leonardo turns to Nebula Enterprises for an explanation, and Gene informs him that sunlight contains ultraviolet rays that can burn skin. He then suggests that Leonardo buys N.L.E.'s special sunscreen and sells them to the Puffies for profit. King Leonardo does so, and proceeds to advertise the product on Channel Lion Out Loud, using his burnt visage as a warning to the Puffies.

Lady Chanter immediately buys into the advertisement and buys Leonardo's sun lotion along with the extra air-conditioner units provided with them, and forbids her family from going outside. The rest of the family becomes more apprehensive as Lady Chanter is encouraged by the TV to close all of the curtains, leaving the interior space dark. Milly, Manny, and Leeko decide to escape while they can, frustrated with the idea of being forced to stay indoors. As the day progresses, several of the Puffies in town become severely sunburnt without realizing it. As Leeko and Manny play ball with the Puffy kids, they too become severely sunburnt and point this out to each other. Milly sees how badly the two were burnt, and concludes that something is indeed awry with the UV conditions in Usapia. They return home and see that Lady Chanter's paranoia has worsened further still, as she now intends to be nocturnal to avoid exposure to the sun. Many of the Puffies in town follow suit, sleeping during the day as they run their air conditioner units.

That night, Sir Chanter wakes up his children and tells them that their mother has gone missing. They search the castle grounds and find her talking to Lola in a tree, intent on cementing herself as a night-owl along with her. Milly and Manny then scurry into town and see that the Puffies have switched entirely to a nocturnal schedule, being as active as they normally would be during the day. Milly speculates on the idea that the sun may be getting stronger to cause these problems, but Moonlight Man suggests instead that the planet might be getting weaker. The next morning, Manny, Leeko, and the Puffy kids are playing ball through town, delighted with the idea that nobody will get in their way anymore. King Leonardo and Tommy take advantage of the peace and quiet as well by speeding through town in the Royal Racecar. A short time later, Helios and Luna are sent by Milly to get Manny and Leeko and return them to the castle, where Milly and many others are preparing a hot air balloon in the courtyard. Once it is ready, Moonlight Man, Milly, Manny, and Leeko board the balloon and sail into the sky to find out what may be causing the high UV conditions. Seeing the balloon launch from the castle, King Leonardo and Tommy quickly return to check in with Nebula Enterprises. Once the balloon reaches 10,000 feet in elevation, Moonlight Man tells Milly and Manny to put on their UV goggles, and they see a massive hole in the sky.

Back in the castle, Gene tells King Leonardo and Tommy that a hole was made in their ozone layer, and falsely blames Leeko and Moonlight Man for causing it. He gloats to King Leonardo and Tommy that since this has happened, their whole planet is doomed to be baked to a crisp, and there is nothing any of them can do about it. From there, a metallic object falls from the sky and lands in Puffy Town, disturbing all the night-owl Puffies. They gather around the canister, and Chief Gordy opens it up to reveal a message from Moonlight Man, which warns them about the air conditioners they bought. Professor Antico opens one of the AC units up and confirms that they have been releasing CFC gasses which were rapidly destroying the ozone layer. Meanwhile, back up in the hot air balloon, Moonlight Man explains that N.L.E was plotting to use the ozone hole to destroy Leeko by exposing him to excess UV radiation. To help save the planet, Leeko agrees to try and patch up the ozone hole, and Milly calls the Shooting Star to help him with this task. After mounting the Shooting Star, Leeko flies toward the hole, only to find it patrolled by the spectral dragon-like monster UooVee Rayz. The monster proceeds to sear one side of the Shooting Star, making it difficult for Leeko to stand on it, so Milly and Manny help Leeko by unscrewing the gas tank for their hot air balloon and tossing it to Leeko so he can swallow it and transform into Jet Leeko.

Jet Leeko flies toward UooVee Rayz and punches a hole in its body as he passes through, but this hole quickly repairs itself. Back in the castle, Helios and Luna tell Lady Chanter and Sir Chanter about the ozone hole and how Leeko is fighting to close it, and Lady Chanter demands her husband get King Leonardo to do something to help. Sir Chanter tries to rush to King Leonardo, but he and his soldiers are instead rushing to try and attack Leeko while he is in the air. Meanwhile, Leeko is struggling against the monster, and ends up losing his Copy Ability. At that moment, King Leonardo orders an explosive cannonball launched at Leeko, and he swallows it to get the Bomb Copy Ability. Bomb Leeko launches a barrage of bombs at UooVee Rayz, which overwhelm the monster and destroy it, closing the hole in the ozone layer in the process. Later on, Leeko and Milly's family are enjoying some sunbathing at the beach - with Leeko and Manny having returned to their normal complexion - and spot King Leonardo and Tommy doing the same, though burying themselves in sand to avoid getting sunburned. The episode ends as Leeko and Manny decides to play a joke on the two and bury their heads in sand as well.

## Trivia

* This is the eighth episode to feature more than one Copy Ability.
* Lady Chanter breaks the fourth wall in this episode when she yells at the viewers to ‘stop staring at her’ when she gets wrinkles. Milly also breaks the fourth wall when she says “Make sure to use sunscreen when you go outside though”.
* This is one of the several episodes that have the ecosystem as its main theme. This episode is about the ozone layer.
* This is the fifth episode of the *Leeko: The Beginning* trilogy to feature the Bomb Copy Ability. It’s also the second and final episode in *The Beginning* trilogy to feature the Jet Copy Ability.
* This is the twenty-third episode in *The Beginning* series where Milly calls for the Shooting Star.
* The pattern on the hot air balloon matches the color and design of Milly’s clothing, but reversed.
* Upon seeing King Leonardo’s sunburned appearance, Gene ironically reacts with fright and mistakes him for a monster, despite the fact that he sells monsters. This is either an ironic joke, or he thought one of his own monsters was loose.