I was originally going to make this into two parts, but after doing some thinking (and also time constraints I DIDN'T need) I decided against making a cliff hanger as intended. But thanks to this (a mixed blessing as they say) I decided to do a different approach to the story using a thrust opening before doing a flashback which would depict the events leading up to that and then make a more interesting cliffhanger to pave the way for Ark 5.

In this story, Rob/Whimser goes on the hunt for a theif stealing puppet materials, and meets a very familier person.

Introducing  MarioMadness42 into the series in the role of his Shiny Phantump self. I debated on making him a Vileplume instead (for reasons only he would know) but in the reworking for this Ark and wanting to make additions to the story to add flavor to them, I decided to use his Shiny Phantump form instead since he would be showing up in the next two arks and be a part of the Finale Battle of the main story.

Small update; as I was doing a post-submission proofread I caught a single error in the story. How no one else saw this small but obvious typo in the story is beyond me.