Mystery Trackers: Forgotten Voices

**Mystery Trackers: Forgotten Voices** is the nineteenth and possibly final installment in the *Mystery Trackers* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

The opening cinematic shows three university students trying to call for help on a radio. Before they can reach anyone, however, they are set upon by a mysterious green-lighted fog, and run for their lives.

When the game proper begins, Agent Ginger is the player character. She and her fellow agents Black and Slate are on duty in the Mystery Trackers communications center, monitoring for incoming signals about possible cases. Slate picks up a strange signal; dating from nearly a year earlier, it shows the three students from the opening cinematic - Reyes Jackson, Isabelle Roson, and Alana Gilmore - pleading for someone to come to Misthill College and rescue them from the entity which has them trapped. The agents do some research online, and while they can't find anything about the students, they confirm the existence of Misthill College. Ginger contacts the Commander to relate the case to him. The Commander agrees that the situation is concerning, and assigns the three young agents to investigate it as their first field mission.

Upon arriving at Misthill College, the three friends discuss how to proceed. They first approach the headmaster, Owen McGillis, who denies knowing anything about the three missing students or even recognizing their names. As he closes his office door in their faces, a jet of green lightning flashes outside and, for a moment, the entire world seems to slow down. The agents decide to split up, and Agent Black becomes the player character. He thinks the headmaster is suspicious and wants to lure him out of his office, so after exploring the hallway and nearby chemistry lab, he assembles a simple smoke bomb to create a false fire drill. The angry McGillis sets off in search of the guilty party, and Black slips into his office to search the student files. After finding the passcode, he breaks into the computer and learns that Misthill College is built on a site believed to be a source of dark energy. Searching the student files brings up no record of any of the missing students, and the computer short-circuits. But a box on the shelf develops a green glow; upon breaking into this, Black finds handwritten records about all three students.

Control switches to Agent Ginger. She's hoping to interview some of the students about their missing classmates. As she explores a hallway, she finds a trophy cabinet with empty frames bearing the names of the three missing students; Isabelle was a gifted artist, Reyes was quarterback of the football team, and Alana was on the school newspaper. She gets into a locker after removing the gum jamming the lock and discovers it belonged to Alana; repairing the model of the school, she's able to find other items Alana left which allow her to get into the newspaper office, where she finds three students. Speaking with two of them, she finds that they don't know the missing individuals, but one girl, Trish, notes that she has started finding weird items and offers to lend what help she can with the investigation. When Ginger is able to open the satchel in Alana's locker, she finds a picture of Alana with the third newspaper student, the one who hadn't said anything; the picture is dated shortly before Alana's disappearance. Continuing to investigate the newspaper room, she locates a key to the old film developing closet and Trish lets her go inside to develop a roll of film she found in Alana's locker. One of the photos shows the newspaper staff, including both Alana and Trish; Ginger shows it to Trish, who is absolutely floored and swears she has no idea who Alana is. She begs Ginger to find out why she's in a photo with someone she doesn't remember, and Ginger promises that they'll get to the bottom of it. Back in the hallway, she puts the newly developed photos into the empty frames in the trophy cabinet.

Control now switches to Agent Slate. He's in the school yard, where he uses a device of his own invention to determine the source of the anomaly; he finds that it's coming from three different locations, and radios the others about his discovery. Black offers to check out the rooftop, while Ginger will search the library and Slate will remain in the yard. He wakes a dozing football player who refuses to help unless Slate wins a collectible card for him from the nearby arcade game, but it's busted. While searching for the means to fix it, he finds a dead cell phone and a note written by Trish wishing "Izzy" luck in her art presentation. After repairing the game, Slate gives the card to the student, who becomes more helpful; he provides a charger for the phone and shows Slate how to get into an old utility room where students would sometimes hide to smoke. Upon charging the phone, he discovers that it belongs to Isabelle, as it shows a short video of her with Trish from the school paper. The video reveals that the statuette which was near the phone is a secret hiding place, and provides instructions for opening it. It contains one of two bracelets belonging to a pair of hands in the fountain; the other bracelet is on the door to the utility closet, and when they're put back where they belong, they open a cache where a security card has been hidden. Slate uses this to bypass the security on the closet and gets inside, but after he finishes searching, a bolt of green lightning strikes the school door. Investigating this, he finds Isabelle, reaching out from within the green anomaly and begging for help; he is then pulled into the anomaly himself.

Control switches back to Agent Ginger, who is in the school library. She finds a bag belonging to Alana, and the diary inside has entries dated shortly before her disappearance; she mentions that green light kept showing up in the pictures she took. After searching through the library and putting a few objects back where they belong, Ginger locates four keys to open the file cabinets and finds Alana's student ID card. The green mist appears again, and the perspective switches to Agent Black on the roof of the school, where a storm is in progress and getting worse. He locates a backpack belonging to Reyes Jackson and works to get inside a locked room, where the anomaly seems to be. The backpack contains a photo of Reyes with Trish, suggesting that they are possibly dating. Black assembles a pump and repairs a football, with which he knocks down another bag belonging to Reyes from where it's stuck on a weathervane; inside is a note about Trish's impending birthday celebration. Clearly Trish was close with all three of the missing students. After completing his search of the roof, Black calls the other two on his radio; Ginger responds, but Slate doesn't, so the other two head down to the schoolyard. They see the green light inside the main entrance and find Slate's abandoned radio on the floor.

Slate is now the player character, but he is confused about where - and when - he might be. He seems to still be in the school, but it looks abandoned and empty. He begins exploring and discovers that when he reaches out of a window and touches the rain, the drops seem to be frozen but then vanish if he touches them. Forcing his way into the next room, he finds the school's swimming pool. He continues to collect evidence, including a photo that proves Reyes and Trish were dating, and wonders how she could have forgotten her boyfriend. After finding the scraps of a torn newspaper, he assembles an article about a strange storm on the day of the students' disappearance, and wonders if it's connected. Back in the hallway outside the pool, Slate is nearly swallowed by the anomaly again, but is rescued by Reyes, who takes him to the room where the other students are. They explain how they came to be where they are - they had all seen green lightning flashes in the storm and the anomaly brought them to where they are. They seem to be stranded in time, literally trapped between one moment and the next, and Isabelle expresses their fear that the entire school may vanish like they did.

Control shifts back to Ginger, who is in the schoolyard again with Black. They consult their GPS tracker and determine that Slate is, or should be, in the school theater; but making their way there, they find no trace of him. Investigating their surroundings, Ginger realizes that the source of the anomaly seems to be inside a locked secretary desk. She also pieces together information about an ancient tribe, who performed a ritual on the site and became victims of the anomaly. Inside the desk she finds the notes of someone who studied the anomaly and developed a device to fight it; sharing the discovery with Black, he agrees that it's worth a try. While he collects equipment from the car, Ginger gathers the components needed to assemble the device. They put it together on the stage and deploy it, and the scene switches back to the in-between realm where Slate and the students are trapped.

The green wave is coming again, so they run to the school theater, where they find that it has almost been erased from reality. Slate begins searching for items that can help, and uses his device to discover the existence of a hidden room. While he's trying to figure out how to enter this room, Black and Ginger appear and explain where they got the mechanism to fight the anomaly. Unfortunately, its battery has died, so they need to charge or replace it in order to get everyone back to reality. By finding three missing gears and a lever, Slate is able to open the secret room, which hasn't been entered in what seems to be decades. Inside he finds something that can charge the battery, but it breaks while being used and he must repair it. He also finds a book explaining that Misthill College is built on what ancient tribes considered to be cursed land. Despite many warnings over the centuries about the anomaly, in the 19th century a mansion was built on the grounds, and it later became the college. Slate is able to repair the machine and charge the battery, which he returns to Black; the device is deployed and all six young people are safely returned to Misthill. The missing students are reunited with their friends, whose memories of them are restored, and the agents return to headquarters to advise the Commander about the anomaly so the Mystery Trackers can keep an eye on it.

### Bonus Chapter

A month after the business at Misthill College, Ginger receives a call from Alana. The school has been doing some renovations, and in the process they uncovered hidden dungeons beneath the oldest building on campus. Her friends thought it would be interesting to explore them, and they haven't returned; Alana is afraid that something has happened to them. The three agents head back to the school, but before Alana can show them how to get into the dungeons, the clock tower unexpectedly crumbles. Ginger, who is the starting player character, works to get a heavy branch off of their car; this accomplished, she uses dynamite from their supplies to remove debris from the dungeon entrance. They tell Alana that if they don't return in five hours, she should contact Mystery Trackers headquarters to send backup. Beneath the school, they find not a mere dungeon but what looks more like a ritual site, with imposing stone statuary. They can hear Isabelle calling for help. After some exploration, Ginger finds a map that leads them into a round room, but both Slate and Black step on trap triggers which land them in cages. Slate gives Ginger his device so she can see which stones will trigger a trap and thus avoid them. She reaches the device in the center of the room and sketches its components; Slate examines the drawing and shows her what changes to make to activate the device, which opens a door to a torture chamber. She can hear Isabelle calling for help.

Exploring the room, Ginger learns why the anomaly hadn't been a problem for so long - an ancient order was founded to control the anomaly, but once the order died out, the anomaly was left unchecked and started wreaking havoc. She finds the means to disable the spear trap and get into the next room, where she locates Isabelle trapped inside a force field. After some sleuthing, Ginger is able to deactivate the force field; Isabelle says that she touched a glowing crystal and became trapped. They go back to the round room and put the crystal into the mechanism, which opens another door. Isabelle remains with the caged agents while Ginger continues the investigation. The new door leads into a creepy corridor and then to an ancient library, where Reyes and Trish are caged in a force field of their own. After finding some necessary items, Ginger agrees to let Isabelle come with her to rescue them. She's able to locate the key to deactivate the force field, and they tell a very similar story about touching a glowing crystal and becoming trapped. Adding this crystal to the mechanism opens one more door, where Mark (the football player Slate met in the main game) is also trapped in a glowing sphere. After releasing him, Ginger takes his crystal and adds it to the mechanism in the round room, then activates it; it sends a powerful current to a subterranean stone which should control the anomaly once more. The game ends with the agents bringing the students out to safety, and Ginger calls home to headquarters to advise them of the situation.

## Characters

* Agents Slate, Black, and Ginger: A trio of Mystery Trackers recruits fresh out of academy, about to conduct their first unsupervised field investigation.
* Reyes Jackson, Isabelle Roson, and Alana Gilmore: Three students and friends whose plea for help travels across time.
* Trish: A friend of the three missing students, who is unable to remember them.

## Connections

* Black, Slate, and Ginger previously appeared as cadets in *Fatal Lesson*. Ginger also appeared before that in *The Fall of Iron Rock*, where she was introduced under her real name of Rachel Masters.
* Agent Shade doesn't appear in the game, but she does have a cameo. During the game, the player can collect favorite possessions of Black, Slate, and Ginger; one of Ginger's items is a magazine called *Monthly Agent*, which is apparently a Mystery Trackers publication and which features Shade as the cover model.

## Trivia

* This is the first *Mystery Trackers* game since *Raincliff* to have the player character of the main game be someone other than Amber.
* According to the computer interface in the Mystery Trackers communications center, the main game takes place on September 16, 2020; the bonus chapter takes place exactly one month later.
* *The Fall of Iron Rock* gave Agent Ginger's real name as Rachel Masters. However, in this game, one of the items in the collectibles gives her real name as being Rachel Cole. This game also seems to have forgotten that she has the ability to see in the dark, which she utilized in *Iron Rock*.
* According to the collectible objects' descriptions, Ginger had an older sister who died tragically; Slate was especially close to his grandfather; and Black's father is a mechanic who taught him much of what he knows.
* This is possibly the last installment of the *Mystery Trackers* series, as it was released in April 2021 and no information about further installments has been forthcoming.

## External Links

* *Forgotten Voices* at the Elephant Games website
* *Mystery Trackers* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook