Mystery Trackers: Mist Over Blackhill

**Mystery Trackers: Mist Over Blackhill** is the fourteenth installment in the *Mystery Trackers* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

Amber and Elf decide to go for an evening ride on their bicycle. However, while passing the community of Blackhill, Amber observes strange supernatural activity, and her "Mystery Trackers detective instincts" urge her to investigate. She discovers the town is being menaced by shadow monsters, and takes refuge with some of the locals inside of a store. The shopkeeper, a man named Sam, explains that something has gone wrong at the mansion of Professor Xiao; he says Xiao is a good man, but his scientific experiments may be the cause of the problem. He directs Amber to go up on his roof in order to safely access the cable car platform, and the car can take her directly to the mansion.

Amber reaches the mansion in time to find another shadow monster menacing a young woman inside a car. The monsters are dispelled with light and noise, and by fixing a nearby floodlight, she's able to send it away. The girl exits the car and introduces herself as Sophie, Professor Xiao's niece, who lives in the mansion with him. She tells Amber that her uncle is probably in the house and might know what's going on. Before Amber can react to this, however, a figure in what appears to be a gas mask emerges from the mansion garden and fires a taser at her. The figure then throws Sophie over his shoulder and carries her into the greenhouse; she screams and calls for Amber to help her.

Investigating the car where Sophie was hiding, Amber discovers a recording made by the girl's uncle, Jackson Xiao. He relates that after the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law in a car accident, he took in their young daughter Sophie, who shared his interest in science. She turned out to be a child prodigy and earned a master's degree by the time she was a teenager. They began collaborating on his research into the space-time continuum, but before they had their breakthrough, the shadow monsters and mysterious masked figure began to appear. Taking the key card she finds in the car, Amber is able to enter the front door of the mansion.

Inside she finds Professor Xiao, tied up and unconscious. After she revives and unties him. he gives Amber an item that allows her to locate the tree-shaped key to the greenhouse. They enter to find the masked figure menacing Sophie, and as Xiao shouts at the figure to release her, Sophie manages to remove the mask from her attacker's face. Much to Amber and Xiao's astonishment, the man is identical to Xiao. He explains angrily that he is Xiao's doppelganger from another dimension, and he was never supposed to be seen. Before anyone can say anything else, another shadow monster breaks through the ceiling of the greenhouse, separating Xiao and Amber from Sophie and her kidnapper.

*The demo ends here.*

## Characters

* Amber and Elf: A Mystery Trackers field agent and her companion animal.
* Professor Jackson Xiao: A university professor who has been researching the possibility of parallel dimensions.
* Sophie Xiao: The professor's orphaned niece, who has scientific degrees and has been assisting him in his research.
* "Dark Xiao": The professor's doppelganger from a parallel world.

## Connections

* Professor Xiao's interdimensional research is a major factor in the plot of the bonus chapter of *Detectives United: The Darkest Shrine* and the main adventure of *Detectives United: Timeless Voyage*.

## Trivia

* Elf's participation in this game is optional; the player has a choice to not bring him for the adventure.
* Gale Von Cott, who voices Martha, was previously the voice actor for Agent Rayne in *Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow* and also voices Josephine in *Haunted Hotel: Lost Time*.
* Inexplicably, the voice credits do not identify the actors who voice either Professor Xiao or Sophie.

## External Links

* *Mist Over Blackhill* at the Elephant Games website
* *Mystery Trackers* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook