Mystery Trackers: The Fall of Iron Rock

**Mystery Trackers: The Fall of Iron Rock** is the sixteenth installment in the *Mystery Trackers* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

Five years ago, Mystery Trackers operative Agent Redford went to the subterranean city of Iron Rock. This community was founded to operate a deep mine, extracting a substance called Eternal Iron, but the mine collapsed and killed most of the residents of the town; this event is known as the Downfall. Agent Redford was there because there were rumors of an unusually large population of people with supernatural abilities, and he hoped to recruit some for the agency; but not long after the collapse, he fell out of contact. It's taken all this time to find the hidden location of Iron Rock, and Amber and Elf are sent to see if they can learn what happened to the lost agent.

As their plane approaches the secret entrance to Iron Rock, something causes it to lose control, forcing Amber and Elf to parachute to safety. Almost immediately she realizes something is wrong; robots guard the entrance and something has dragged away a girl screaming for help. Amber finds the remains of a man who tried to escape from Iron Rock and died in the attempt; using his pass card, she's able to bypass the robots and enter the nearly abandoned town. She gets inside just in time to see the girl being hauled away by a robot, so she decides to get into the nearby town hall and look for answers. After some sleuthing, she manages to get the door open only to be met by a masked man who tells her she doesn't belong there. Amber is knocked unconscious by another robot.

She awakens in a jail cell, and the girl she saw earlier is nearby. The girl introduces herself as Rachel, and gives Elf a set of lockpicks to take to Amber. Amber breaks them both out and they escape through a tunnel system thanks to Rachel's night vision. She takes Amber and Elf to her grandfather, Samuel, the town doctor. Samuel is actually a natural healer, but as he explains to Amber, using his powers drains his life energy. Rachel has been searching for a way to get them out of the town so he can be helped. They had befriended Agent Redford when he came to town, but he's been missing since not long after the Downfall. The mayor of Iron Rock was among those killed in the event, and he was replaced by a new mayor whom nobody really knows. This new mayor was the masked man at the town hall, and he uses the robots to keep people from leaving or entering Iron Rock, and arrests anyone who tries to do either.

Samuel tells Amber to find his neighbor, Lilly, who is an expert at botany and chemistry; they've been working to find a way to escape and he wants to help Amber at the same time. After distracting another robot, Amber makes her way to Lilly's house and learns that Lilly has found a hidden passage out of the city, but she wants to make a bioluminescent lantern to light their way. Amber assembles the components and they make the lamp, then return in time to rescue Rachel and Samuel from being arrested by yet another robot. The four of them head for the hidden passage, but the mayor appears and sets off explosives to block their exit. The explosives also disrupt the underground city's fake sky and, more importantly, the ventilation system, so Amber has to get into the mineral factory to reset the systems before everyone runs out of air. As she works to save the citizens, she continues to pick up evidence left behind by Agent Redford, whose notes express concern about the presence of a powerful psychic in Iron Rock.

Amber just gets the air turned back on when the mayor arrives and captures Rachel. He drives away with her on a motorbike, but as Amber pursues him, she finds him alone and unconscious in a back alley. The mayor actually *is* Agent Redford. As she tends his wounds and brings him around, he explains that the psychic he mentioned in his notes was able to manipulate his mind and force him to become the city's jailer. The psychic, a man named Murray Dolman, wants to possess Amber because he thinks she's a perfect vessel for his plans. Agent Redford goes to assist Lilly and Samuel in rounding up the other residents; he'll send a distress call to the Mystery Trackers to come and perform a mass evacuation. Amber, meanwhile, will save Rachel and stop Murray.

As she works her way through the Iron Rock cemetery and the zoo, Amber gradually pieces together Murray's story. He was a psychic child, able to read minds and connect to other people's thoughts, but shunned by his fearful neighbors; even his parents were afraid of him. Worse, using his powers caused him to age prematurely, making him look much older than he was. He ran away in his teens, but found the outside world even less welcoming, so he returned home only to learn about the Downfall and all of the victims, which included his parents. He resolved to block Iron Rock off from the outside world to keep it safe from the cruelty he had experienced; however, as he's now a young man in a decrepit wheelchair-bound body, he enslaved Agent Redford to act as mayor and carry out his will. In the years since then, he's been trying to find a perfect host for himself, since he knows his body won't last much longer, and he's settled on Rachel for her youth and untapped power. Amber condemns his actions, but also admits to feeling some pity for him.

She finally breaks into his underground lab, where Rachel is strapped to a table and Murray is working on transferring his consciousness to her. Using a device created by Agent Redford, Amber battles him and turns his own mental powers back on him, leaving him apparently dead. She revives Rachel and they run from the crumbling basement as another collapse is imminent, brought on by Murray's unchecked power; they return to Samuel just as the Mystery Trackers arrive to get everyone out of Iron Rock. Amber's ending narration observes that Rachel has decided to join the Mystery Trackers and is now a trainee agent. She also notes that Murray is believed to be dead, but they don't know for sure.

### Bonus Chapter

It's been six months since Iron Rock was evacuated, but the Commander is getting disturbing reports of activity in the ruins. They suspect it might be the Dark Trackers Agency, and he commissions Agent Shade and Rachel - now known as Trainee Agent Ginger - to investigate. But almost as soon as they arrive, one of the Dark Trackers attacks them with a strange machine; Agent Shade protects Rachel, taking the blow herself, and is left unconscious, forcing the young recruit to solve the mystery on her own.

Rachel pursues the Dark Tracker through the frozen ruins of Iron Rock, discovering that the agent is using a polar bear to help create blockades. She gradually outwits the bear and makes her way into the Dark Trackers headquarters, where she learns that they have made a copy of the device Agent Redford had developed and can use it to take over someone else's mind. Even more shocking to the girl, however, is the discovery that her parents are actually alive - they, along with a number of other survivors of the Downfall, have been in medical comas and being monitored by the Dark Trackers all this time. Murray Dolman is also alive; Rachel finds the contract he signed with the Dark Trackers in which he agreed to provide them with whatever information they required in exchange for a new host body. That's how they were able to replicate Agent Redford's device, based on his eyewitness testimony.

As she finishes reading the contract, a cold voice greets her, saying how good it is that she's returned to Iron Rock. It's Murray Dolman, who now goes by the name of Michael, in the new body the Dark Trackers have given him. He explains that the Dark Trackers saved him from the collapse and gave him the new body, and he's joining them and will traverse various worlds in search of more power. When Rachel tells him the Mystery Trackers will stop him, he says she won't escape to tell them anything. He releases a psychic wave of energy at her, but the next thing she knows, she's back on the street. Using the device she took from the Dark Trackers' office, she revives Agent Shade and tells her about the survivors. They return to the caves, where there is no longer any sign of the Dark Trackers; the ending narration observes that the survivors have been removed from Iron Rock and are in the care of the Mystery Trackers, and are in stable condition. The final scene shows Murray/Michael looking in on Rachel, satisfied that he was able to wipe himself from her memory.

## Characters

* Amber and Elf: A Mystery Trackers field agent and her companion animal.
* Agent Redford: Another Mystery Trackers field agent, who disappeared on assignment five years earlier.
* Rachel Masters: A young girl with night vision abilities.
* Samuel Masters: Rachel's grandfather, who has raised her since his son and daughter-in-law died in the mine collapse. He is the town doctor and a psychic healer.
* Lilly Bennet: Samuel's neighbor, a chemist and botanist, who is trying to help him and Rachel escape from Iron Rock.
* Murray Dolman: A telepathic young man whose powers have prematurely aged him. He is determined to keep Iron Rock a secret from the outside world.
* Agent Shade: Amber's best friend and fellow agent who, in the bonus chapter, accompanies Rachel (now Trainee Agent Ginger) on a field assignment in Iron Rock.

## Connections

* The first hidden object puzzle has Amber viewing documents on her computer. One note is about Dorian Brown successfully solving a case related to the Dark Trackers Agency; another is about how Amber herself became an agent after the tragic loss of her family. This is actually foreshadowing, as the next game in the series is *The Secret of Watch Hill*, which sheds light on her family's deaths.
* Although it's not explicitly mentioned, Amber facing off with Murray is an extension of the revelations in *Silent Hollow*. Being a direct descendant of Morpheus, she is immune to mind control, and so she can confront Murray without risking mental enslavement.

## Trivia

* Documents in the beginning of the game identify the player character as "Agent A," which is the only name she has been given up to this point in the series. It's not until *Fatal Lesson* that her full code name of Agent Amber is revealed.
* This game is the only instance of Agent Shade being voiced by someone other than her usual actress, Courtney Christine Rosemont. Because she has very little dialogue in the bonus chapter owing to what happens to her, Samantha Livingston (who voices Amber) fills the role instead.

## External Links

* *The Fall of Iron Rock* at the Elephant Games website
* *Mystery Trackers* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook