Detectives United: The Darkest Shrine

Detectives United: The Darkest Shrine is the second game in the Detectives United series by Elephant Games. The full version was released on 2 May 2019.

Plot
"Three places! All at once?! That's impossible! Guys, emergency alert! Code three - repeat - code three! This is not a drill." Agent Shade is on night duty when she receives an emergency alarm. Three places are indicated to be experiencing paranormal activity at once, and she calls on the three agents of Detectives United to investigate. Agent Brown volunteers to head for Schneider's Hotel in the Alps, Anna Gray goes to Blackhill, and James goes to St. Mary's Orphanage, noting that Anna's niece Jackie studied there at one time.

As James reaches the orphanage, he decides to look around to find a way inside. As he enters the garden, he recalls things Anna told them about the garden and observes the presence of paranormal activity. A camera flash and photo gives him an idea of how someone fought off a Mirror Creature, and through the use of some additional objects he manages to enter the building. The Mirror Creature is inside, but he is able to neutralize it using the camera flash. He determines that the creature came through a portal in a mirror in the orphanage, and upon finding a device inside a safe belonging to a group called S.H.R.I.N.E., he attempts to use it to neutralize the portal. However, creatures emerge from the portal and attack him, and though he tries to call for help, his conversation with Agent Shade is disrupted.

The scene then switches to Agent Brown, who is reporting in from the Alps to say that he has reached his destination. Schneider's Hotel turns out to not be haunted, but overrun with people. He finds a folder and information about S.H.R.I.N.E., but is unfamiliar with the name; he does learn that Dr. Schneider, for whom the hotel is named, was doing research on mystical crystals and S.H.R.I.N.E. was interested in his findings, but does not know why. Eventually, he discovers that the crystals have an effect on the local Alpine waters, and that agents of S.H.R.I.N.E. were ordered to mine the crystals at any cost in order to ensure the success of something called Operation: Darkest Night. While searching the cave where the crystals were mined, someone sets off an explosion, and he barely manages to send a distress call to Agent Shade before the signal is lost.

Anna Gray then checks in from Blackhill Mansion, where S.H.R.I.N.E. agents are searching for Professor Xiao's research. Traveling to the past, she confirms that they are targeting Xiao and his research, but it's unclear why. She discovers notes from the agents regarding the need for a skeleton key and information about some other items, including a black soul gem. Her efforts to apprehend a frozen agent are interrupted by another agent, who arrives through a portal. The new arrival explains that they have been waiting for her, and have been able to engineer technology to keep them from freezing in the past. He uses a black soul gem stolen from the Mystery Trackers, containing the souls of several powerful creatures, and directs one of them to attack her. The creature damages Anna's device and steals Richard's skull, sending her instantly back to her own time.

Anna is able to repair her device and get in contact with Agent Shade to report everything which has happened. Operation: Darkest Night is S.H.R.I.N.E.'s plan to reveal a powerful source of dark energy from three parallel worlds, requiring a dark mystical crystal from the Alps. Shade promises that they will get Richard back, but in the meantime sends Anna to the orphanage to help James, who is still in danger. She puts out a fire and enters the portal to find the unconscious James, but before she can revive him, she is attacked by his own dark doppelganger, Mirror James. After defeating this creature, she is able to bring James back to consciousness and they contact Agent Shade with an update.

As they are assuring Shade that James is all right, Agent Brown reports in once again, letting the others know that he survived the crash. Still in the Alps, he manages to escape from the cave and discovers the S.H.R.I.N.E. agent who attempted to kill him. After knocking the agent unconscious, Brown is able to translate a map to locate S.H.R.I.N.E.'s headquarters. He sends the information to Agent Shade, who determines that the coordinates are at a castle in Great Britain. The three detectives arrange to meet at the castle

Agent Shade provides the reunited detectives with information on the mastermind behind S.H.R.I.N.E. A man named Nathaniel Prior lost his beloved wife and son in a tragic car accident, and his despair set him on an evil path. Anna is concerned that Richard may be the subject of the group's experiments, and says that she does not trust their technology or ability to teleport using portals. They split up and meet inside the castle, where James is able to rescue Richard's skull from a glass sphere. A grateful Richard provides James with the information he has learned during his captivity; combining the power of the three worlds is extremely dangerous, and Nathaniel doesn't realize it. He also provides James with a cube that will allow him to access S.H.R.I.N.E.'s secret lab.

Inside the lab, the three detectives and Richard face off with Nathaniel, who summons shadow creatures and allows them to possess him and turn him into a monstrous being. In this state he captures both James and Agent Brown, leaving only Anna free to stop him. Using a restored photograph of Nathaniel's, she is able to travel to the frozen past and discover how Nathaniel's family died; a lumberjack truck lost some of its logs, which fell onto the Priors' car and crushed the passengers. She is able to reinforce the truck's security before this can happen, thereby preventing the tragedy. Nathaniel's wife and child survive, and in the repaired timeline, S.H.R.I.N.E. is still opened by Nathaniel and his wife but as a detective agency to do good work. The three detectives receive medals for their heroism.

Bonus Chapter
Agent Shade is once again on night duty when she receives a call from Nathaniel Prior, saying that S.H.R.I.N.E. needs help from the agency's best detectives. Anna is away, but she dispatches James and Agent Brown to the other agency's headquarters immediately. They find the castle deserted, and discover a note claiming that Anna is responsible for the disappearance of the agents. Eventually they manage to enter the castle, where they catch sight of Anna entering the lab and locking it behind her. The men are puzzled, as Anna is supposed to be visiting relatives.

They pick the lock and enter the lab in time to see Anna throw a grenade at them, before stepping into the inter-dimensional machine and traveling to another dimension. Agent Brown is immediately suspicious that the woman they're seeing is not, as he puts it, "our Anna." He explains to James that the Mystery Trackers have had some interactions what what he calls "dark doppelgangers" in the past, and that they would need to be careful. They get the inter-dimensional machine started, put on bracelets which will allow them to return to their own dimension, and travel to what they name 'the dark dimension.'

The dark dimension has a strange reddish sky, and James comments that the air is difficult to breathe. They attempt to find the local equivalent of Detectives United, and are surprised to find that there is none. Inside a building identified as the headquarters of D.A.R.K. S.H.R.I.N.E., they encounter the dark dimension's version of James. At first he seems ready to attack, but then explains that he doesn't mean them any harm. He is angry at Dark Anna and Dark Brown, saying that they betrayed him in some way, and he will take his revenge on his former friends by helping James and Agent Brown. With his assistance, the detectives make their way down to the underground portion of the headquarters, where Dark Brown has the S.H.R.I.N.E. agents locked in a cage. Brown, using his invisibility to conceal himself, is able to subdue his dark counterpart and help Nathaniel and the other agents escape.

Before they can use the bracelets to bring the agents back to their own dimension, however, Dark Anna appears and damages Agent Brown's bracelet, rendering it useless. She tells them that they have won the battle but not the war, and she will not let them escape so easily. Despite this, Agent Brown is able to find what he needs to repair his bracelet, synchronizes it with the one James is wearing, and they and the S.H.R.I.N.E. agents return home safely, where they relate the events to Agent Shade. Brown calls Anna's dark counterpart "Dark Anna Gray," and the player finds that she is outside of Detectives United headquarters, listening to the conversation and deciding that she rather likes the new name. She then leaves, with no one in the room realizing that she is nearby.

Characters

 * Dorian Brown: Mystery Trackers special agent from the Mystery Trackers series.
 * James Blackthorne: paranormal expert and detective from the Haunted Hotel series.
 * Anna Gray: private investigator from the Grim Tales series. She can time travel using personal objects.
 * Richard Gray: Anna's father. His soul is in the skull which Anna always carries with her.
 * Agent Shade: Agent Contact of the Detectives United. She is said to be in charge of the Intelligence and Safety Management of the Mystery Trackers agency, and has control over multiple and diverse resources.
 * Nathaniel Prior: the main antagonist, founder of S.H.R.I.N.E. After his wife and son were killed in a tragic accident, he turned to evil. He wanted a Dark Crystal to bring them back at all costs. He later founded the S.H.R.I.N.E. Agency alongside his wife. At the bonus chapter, he became an ally of the Detectives United.
 * Mrs. Prior: Nathaniel's wife. Founded the S.H.R.I.N.E. agency alongside her husband, after Anna made sure that the accident that killed her and their son never happened.
 * Nathaniel Prior Jr.: Nathaniel's son.
 * S.H.R.I.N.E. agent: An agent of the S.H.R.I.N.E. agency.
 * Mirror James: Mirror Creature version of James.
 * Dark Brown: Dark counterpart of Agent Brown. Founded D.A.R.K. S.H.R.I.N.E. with Dark Anna and Dark James.
 * Dark Anna: Dark counterpart of Anna Gray. Founded D.A.R.K. S.H.R.I.N.E. with Dark Brown and Dark James.
 * Dark James: Dark counterpart of James Blackthorne. Founded D.A.R.K. S.H.R.I.N.E. with Dark Brown and Dark Anna, but was betrayed by them in some unspecified manner.

Connections

 * Blackhill, where Anna goes to investigate, is the setting of the Mystery Trackers installment Mist Over Blackhill. This game's bonus chapter is also related to the plot of Mist Over Blackhill.
 * St. Mary's Orphanage, where James goes to investigate, is from the Grim Tales series. Portraits of several Gray family members are seen on the walls, and he finds a diary which belonged to Anna's niece Jackie.
 * Schneider's Hotel, where Agent Brown goes to investigate, is from the Haunted Hotel installment Lost Dreams.

Trivia

 * Nathaniel Prior in this game has the same voice actor as Agent Brown, Chris McCann.
 * The scene where the detectives reunite at S.H.R.I.N.E. headquarters contains a visual goof. Anna is depicted as holding Richard's skull; however, Richard at this point is still trapped inside the castle and nowhere near his daughter and her friends.
 * The game never reveals what S.H.R.I.N.E. (or, in the bonus chapter, D.A.R.K. S.H.R.I.N.E.) actually means. It seems to be an acronym, but what each letter stands for is unknown. Agent Brown even wonders about it in his internal dialogue.
 * Dark James, in the bonus chapter, does not clarify what Dark Brown and Dark Anna have done to betray him. However, on the developer's Facebook page, a player inquired about it in a comment and Elephant's representative promised that they will "drop some hints soon."