Mystery Trackers: Memories of Shadowfield

**Mystery Trackers: Memories of Shadowfield** is the thirteenth installment in the *Mystery Trackers* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

Amber wakes from a nightmare in which she's been attacked while running through strange hallways. She finds a note reminding her to see the psychologist (and also to buy food for Elf). The scene transitions to her appointment with the psychologist, Dr. Spector, who believes Amber is suffering from episodic amnesia. He thinks it's related to her latest case, in which she was trying to rescue a girl named Ann McPherson from the abandoned Shadowfield Observatory, and thinks that hypnosis will help her uncover what's blocking her memories and causing the nightmares.

In her hypnotic state, Amber returns to Shadowfield, working her way into the building. A figure on the rooftop shouts at her to leave. Once inside, her hypnosis breaks, so Dr. Spector gives her a drink that will help her to concentrate, and hypnotizes her again. She resumes her investigation, and inside the building she finds what appears to be a ghost. Striking it with a bat, however, reveals that it's actually a drone draped with a sheet; when she brings down the drone, a girl and an older man come out of hiding with their hands in the air. The girl is Ann, and the man is introduced as Mr. Mason. Ann explains that she hasn't been missing at all; she just came to the old observatory to visit Mr. Mason, who values his privacy and spread rumors about ghosts and paranormal activity to keep people away. The explanation is interrupted, however, by someone pounding on a nearby door and begging to be released.

Mr. Mason tries to tell Amber that "there's nothing interesting behind that door," but Amber doesn't believe him. A parrot, which Amber had seen in the previous room, flies in and continues spouting philosophy while she works to find a way to open the door. When she does, the person who emerges is Mr. Mason's grandson, Bobby, but he quickly turns into a monster. He pushes his grandfather aside and throws Ann over his shoulder, then breaks out of the observatory through a window. Mr. Mason says that the monster which has overtaken Bobby is sensitive to ultraviolet light, and gives Amber a lamp to use on him.

Amber gives chase, but the Bobby-monster has incredibly strength and agility, and carries Ann off to a high part of the observatory. In Mason's office, Amber learns that Bobby works at a lab and, a few weeks earlier, had spilled some strange chemical on himself; the transformations had been happening ever since, only stopping when the sun rose, so Mr. Mason moved him into the old observatory to hide him from anyone who might try to use the monster as a living weapon. Back outside, Amber repairs a treehouse ladder and climbs up to the room where the Bobby-monster has taken Ann. She can hear Bobby apologizing for not being able to stop the monster, and uses the ultraviolet light to subdue him. But the monster transfers itself to Ann, who then attacks Amber.

Amber comes out of hypnosis and Dr. Spector tells her she's given him everything he needs. She loses consciousness and wakes up to find herself strapped to a bomb. She disables it with ease and goes to the window to hear Dr. Spector on the phone; he tells the person on the other end that he intends to find Ann, remove the symbiant monster, and then eliminate her and any other witnesses. He ends the call and drives away, leaving Amber to ransack his office in search of clues. She rescues Elf, who is tied up in a sack, and after locating Ann's address they take off in pursuit of Spector. Amber is too late; Spector gets Ann, though Amber is able to revive her mother. Ann contacts Amber via cell phone, telling her where she can find a bike and that she can triangulate a signal to find where she, Bobby, and Mr. Mason are being taken.

Amber tracks the villains to Blackwood Laboratories. Inside, she hears Spector and a man he calls "Director" talking about removing the symbiont and then killing the witnesses. Evading them, she finds Bobby and Mason; Mason tells her that the keycard she needs is in a safe in the basement, and with that she can get into the lab where Ann is being prepared for the extraction. She gets into the lab in time to see the monster take over Ann and break through the glass cylinder in which she's contained; the monster chokes Spector, then transfers itself to Spector's body. Spector knocks aside the director and attacks Amber, who manages to drive him back with a series of items. The monster leaves Spector's body and crawls across the floor, but Amber throws a lantern and manages to burn the monster to death. The adventure ends with Ann, Bobby, and Mason in the crowd applauding Amber as the Commander presents her with a medal of valor.

### Bonus Chapter

Amber and the Commander are in Dr. Spector's office after the events of the main game, learning about "the corporation" for which he and the man he called the director had been working. The Commander finds a box full of evidence which indicates that Mr. Mason was part of the corporation's experiments and that he himself may have special powers. Mason is a psychokinetic, but during the course of the experiments at Shadowfield, he began reacting badly and displaying dangerous antisocial behavior. The corporation made the decision to wipe his memories in order to keep him from harming anyone. Just as they finish reading all of this, the Commander gets a call that something is going on at the observatory, and it seems to indicate that Mason may have regained his memories and powers.

Arriving at Shadowfield, Amber discovers that the place was set to reopen to the public and a school bus indicates that students are on hand for the opening celebrations. After extinguishing the fire at the gate, she enters the grounds to find everyone at the party literally frozen like statues - Mason has done something to their minds. Getting inside the observatory, Amber sees a woman herding Mason into a locked room and barking orders at him; it seems he's in danger. Giving chase, Amber sees the woman take him to an underground room, but not before he's able to covertly drop a note begging Amber for help.

Once she's able to access the underground labs, Amber finds that this is where the corporation must have performed their experiments on Mason. In a study she finds a note addressed to Agent Blade, which she deduces is the name of the woman. After finding what she needs to get into the "mind control room," Amber discovers that Agent Blade has taken Bobby hostage in order to force Mason to use his mental powers to destroy what she calls "experimental subjects." Exactly what or who this means is not clear. Amber uses a jagged piece of ceramic to cut Bobby's bonds and release him, then fights Agent Blade and tases her unconscious. She frees Mason, who thanks her and uses his mental powers to release everyone he had been forced to freeze outside. The chapter ends with Amber looking at a newspaper article about the events.

## Characters

* Amber and Elf: A Mystery Trackers field agent and her companion animal.
* Ann McPherson: A missing girl whom Amber is trying to find.
* Mr. Mason: An elderly gentleman who lives in the abandoned Shadowfield Observatory.
* Bobby Mason: Mr. Mason's grandson. He has recently become afflicted with a form of monstrous possession.
* Dr. Spector: A psychologist who is trying to help Amber understand the root of her amnesia. He actually wants the information in her subconscious so he can find the monster and use it for his own ends.
* Agent Blade: In the bonus chapter, an enemy agent who tries to force Mr. Mason to use his own psychic powers to destroy people.

## Connections

* In the trunk of Amber's car she finds a newspaper; one of the headlines references the events of *Queen of Hearts*.

## Trivia

* The game's credits do not list who provided any of the voice acting.
* In the bonus chapter, Agent Blade's origin is never explained. However, comparing her appearance to that of Dark Amber in *Darkwater Bay* makes it clear that they are the same person - Agent Blade is Amber's doppelganger in the Dark Trackers. Strangely, Amber herself doesn't comment on this.

## External Links

* *Memories of Shadowfield* at the Elephant Games website
* *Mystery Trackers* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook