Leonardo

A talented young pavement artist, Tomaso, turns up looking for an apprenticeship at the workshop of the artist Verrochio, where Leonardo is already an apprentice. Leonardo has seen Tomaso's work in the streets and encourages Verrochio to take him on. Then the gang catch Tomaso trying to steal Leonardo's priceless notebook, containing all the diagrams and plans for his inventions. Tomaso is not what he seems and the gang's hostility soon turns to amazement when the truth comes out. Though none of them can guess the real story - not even Tomaso.

Unknown to his son, the theft of Leo's notebook has been masterminded by Piero de' Medici, the father of one of Leo's closest friends, Lorenzo. But it proves to be no use to him because all the formulae and calculations are written in code. Piero employs Lorenzo's maths teacher Professor Pico to decipher the code and Leo, too clever for a mere maths professor, manages to outwit him - though he has to risk his life in the process.

Leonardo has been working on a massive pair of wings, with which he believes he's going to be able to fly. Convinced he'll die in the attempt, Tomaso does everything possible to stop him, but, as ever, Leo is determined and certain that the wings will work. Soon, however, it becomes clear that he faces greater danger from the villainous Rizzo, whom Machiavelli has double-crossed, than he does from jumping off tall buildings. Rizzo wants the wings, but what he doesn't know is that Piero wants them even more.

Leo and Tom have an unusual commission. They're to paint the wedding portrait of Petronella, the unhappiest bride they've ever seen. Small wonder when they meet her husband to be, the evil loan-shark, Lucio and understand that Petronella is sacrificing her own happiness to save her father, who is heavily in debt to Lucio. But Mac recognizes Lucio, who figured in his own past and he encourages the gang to carry out an exciting sting, which will not only save Petronella from the marriage, but help them to restore to his victims all the money he's stolen from them.

Tom is really a girl called Lisa, who has chosen to live as a boy so as to fulfill her ambition to paint. But hanging out in all male company can be a strain, especially when Leo never notices her interest in him - just as she herself pays little attention to Mac, who only has eyes for her. Then, Leo falls in love with Lorenzo's spoilt cousin Valentina and, as if this isn't bad enough, Valentina falls in love with Lisa in her male disguise as Tom. Romance has never been so complicated!

Lorenzo smuggles Leo into the palace to show him an extraordinary object - a plain box, which produces an amazing light show. Leo creates a replica and they swap the boxes so Leo can discover how the original works. But as Leo and Lorenzo set out to return the original, they're attacked and the box is stolen. What with Mac's suspicious behaviour and Piero's lethal security system, Leo's fascination with the box threatens not only to land his friend Lorenzo in trouble, but also to lead Leo himself into the gravest danger.