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Chapter Twenty Nine: Shadows of New York Part Two:


Alexandra and Lily exchanged looks as their vampire attackers advanced on them threateningly.

“They want me, because I stole that bloody book, but I’m not going to let them,” hissed Lily as she sent a blinding jet of light from her wand that caused the vampires to back off. Alexandra did the same thing and the vampires backed off until they were out of the office. The door swung shut and Alexandra levitated her desk in front of it to stall the vampires.

“That should hold them for maybe a minute, long enough for us to get out of here,” said Alexandra as she made her way towards a vent but Lily had blasted a hole through the back of the wall just as the vampires smashed their way through the door, one using their strength to toss the desk to the side before they advanced on the two witches who had slipped through the hole and down a dark corridor.

Over their shoulders, Lily and Alexandra sent several more bright jets of light over their shoulders to stall the vampires further, who back to back off until the bright lights faded.

“The Aurors should be on their way,” muttered Alexandra as she placed her wand to a large stone door causing it to slide open. “This way Lily, through here, there’s a secret exit through here that we can get out of harm’s way until the Aurors arrive.”

Lily nodded as she followed her friend through the stone door, which slid shut behind them, knowing full well that the vampires would catch up in no time if they did not move quickly.

In the warehouse above the lair, the four Turtles, Harry, and Regulus made there way up through the elevator towards the Battle Shell. As Don pressed a button to open the warehouse garage door for the battle shell, nothing happened. A few more presses of the button and Don came to an unfortunate realization.

“The door’s frozen shut, we can’t get out,” said Don in a horrified voice.

“Yes, we gathered that much,” replied Raph dryly. “Harry, can’t you melt the ice or something with magic?”

“I could but it would take too long,” said Harry. “We need to get to the American Wizarding Government headquarters right away, so there could be another way.”

“How about we use the Turtle Tunneler?” suggested Mikey.

“That actually might work,” admitted Leo. “There is a subway exit not far from the lair, the tunneler should be able to even break through all that snow and ice to get there soon enough.”

Don nodded in confirmation and the others made their way back down to the lair to get the Turtle Tunneler, hoping they were not too late.

Back in the American Wizarding Government headquarters, Lily and Alexandra reached the end of the stone corridor and Alexandra stopped cold, where the exit point should have been.

“Damn, frozen shut,” cursed Alexandra and a thumping sound from down the corridor indicated that they were about to have company and the two instinctively held their wands out, ready to fight and sure enough, several vampires slowly walked down the hallway.

The vampire made a quick movement towards Alexandra but Lily managed to catch it off guard with a banishing spell, allowing Alexandra to wrap thick ropes around the arms and legs of a second vampire. Three more vampires made their way forward but were sent backwards by bright jets of light but it seemed like they were less effective in this corridor then they were earlier and only stalled the vampires for seconds.

Lily stepped in front of the vampires, and waved her wand, causing a large ball of fire to materialize in mid air in front of them and she banished it towards the vampires but it only moved a few centimeters before it slowly froze in mid air. The ball of ice dropped to the ground and shattered, sending jagged pieces of ice towards Lily and Alexandra, who were forced to banish them with their wands quickly, to avoid being hit.

The vampires continued to advance on them in a tenuous manner, as they sent more jets of light towards the vampires, but both witches were running out of ideas that would work against vampires. They were slowed by two things, fire and sunlight, neither of which seemed to be working anyway.

“We need an exit!” yelled Alexandra as they sent more light but the vampires almost seemed to be brushing the light aside and the unfortunate realization that they ran out of room was all too apparent.

In an instant, rumbling underneath their feet caused the vampires to look on in surprise and the Turtle Tunneler burrowed out of the ground, before the top popped out to reveal the four Turtles and Harry with weapons drawn, as they looked at the vampires who made a movement.

“We must destroy all that oppose us!” cried one of the vampires and two of the vampires grabbed Mikey by the legs and pulled him off, but Raph leapt up, kicking the vampires back but it barely phased them. A thunderous blow clipped Raph across the back, as Don and Leo engaged some more vampires in battle, but their weapons barely scratched the vampires.

“Fools, your little ninja toys are useless against vampires, magic barely even phases them, especially in the colder environment,” lectured Regulus.

“I don’t see you trying to help!” snapped Raph as he managed to flip one of the vampires over with his feet, it very nearly attempting to sink its fangs into Raph’s neck. The vampire collided with another one and Don leapt up, before he cracked his Bo Staff right over the back of his attacker but the vampire blasted Don backwards, not even feeling the blow.

“I hate to say this, but Regulus is right, there is no way we can defeat these bloody vampires hand to hand!” yelled Harry as he spun around and grabbed a vampire, before he flipped it to the ground. Waving his wand, a jet of light caused the vampires to back up just a little bit. “Everyone, get into the Tunneler, I have an idea to hold them off.”

Leo, Don, Mikey, Raph, Lily, and Alexandra made there way to the Tunneler, and climbed inside as Harry stood right by the vampires, another jet of light blasting at them before he waved his wand in a circular motion. Several large rings of fire shot from his wand, promptly merging together.

“Harry, that won’t work for too long, the fire attacks just freeze,” cautioned Lily and sure enough the fire began to slowly freeze, which allowed the vampires some movement but Harry had already leapt up towards the Tunneler, with Raph and Mikey helping him inside.

“Gun it, Leo!” yelled Harry and the Tunneler blasted back underneath the ground, just as the fire completely froze but the Tunneler was already underneath the ground and on its way back towards the lair.

“You do realize that those vampires won’t give up that easily,” chimed in Regulus.

“Yes, we realize that Regulus,” said Lily in a patient voice. “They’ll be back, in greater numbers, more than a few rings of fire can hold off.”

“Considering who their leader is rumored to be,” offered Alexandra. “Eskara, that female vampire that was wanted for crimes in twenty countries, including many vicious assaults on small magical communities in Canada.”

“Rumored, I know without a shadow of a doubt Eskara is the leader, Morgan,” said Regulus in a calm voice. “She would kill us all without blinking or on a good day, she would turn everyone that opposed her into mindless slaves. All humans are to her are toys for her own amusement.”

“Sounds like someone with some serious issues,” said Leo darkly.

“Is she aligned with Voldemort?” asked Harry.

“She and the Dark Lord have met before, but the Dark Lord, despite his best efforts, is only human and thus Eskara would consider him to be below her notice,” answered Regulus. “The Dark Lord may think that the French Canadian Vampire legion is on his side, but the vampires are rogue that they despise all humanity.”

“Kind of like you,” muttered Raph under his breath.

“Unlike most vampires, I recognize the benefits of cooperating with humans and that makes me a traitor to them,” said Regulus mildly. “A small group of vampires that have willingly put themselves under the service of the Dark Lord are treated with as much contempt although the Dark Lord tends to overlook this in his pursuit for ultimate power. Eskara would attempt to put down Voldemort if he attempted to insert himself in and tell her vampires what to do.”

“And now she has a powerful mystical device that is bringing one of the largest cities in the world to its knees,” concluded Lily darkly and Harry nodded, for once he was at a loss how to win.

“We need to find a way to beat be able to fight those vampires,” said Harry, as he turned to Regulus.

“Well, I’m going to tell you this right now, I personally had an allergic reaction to garlic that I most certainly didn’t have before I was a vampire, when it touched my skin” said Regulus slowly. “It’s not the ultimate defeater of vampires as many of those wretched Muggle horror movies put it out to be but it should do the trick. The problem is, unless we can find the mystical box, we have no way of defeating Eskara and the rest of her vampire minions.”

“Then we need to get back to the lair to better plan out our strategy,” said Leo.

“Agreed and do we have garlic at the lair?” asked Harry with a completely straight face.

“Yes, we should have some,” answered Leo promptly.

“Good,” said Harry calmly. “When I get back to the lair, I’ll need both your weapons and all the garlic we have. I’ve got a plan.”

The group of male vampires that stormed the American Wizarding Government headquarters, walked up to Eskara, who had sat above them on a throne, with a pair of female vampires on either side, each looking down at their male counterparts if they were something that had been scraped off the bottom of their shoes.

“Report,” said Eskara in an ice cold tone of voice.

“Mistress, we beg your forgiveness, but we were unable to capture the one called Lily Potter,” reported one of the vampires.

“Why not?” asked Eskara.

“Well, we nearly had them, but they showed up, the mutant turtle creatures and Harry Potter. They managed to get Lily Potter and the Head of the American Wizarding Government out of there, alive” replied the vampire and Eskara rose to her feet, before she stepped down. In an instant, she viciously back handed the vampire across the face, which sent him down to the ground.

“Harry Potter is now wise to my plans,” said Eskara, her eyes flashing with malice. “The boy is slightly above most mere mortals in power, but I’ll be damned if I let a mere whelp of a child stop me. New York City will be buried under ice, the sun will never shine in this town again. This will be the beginning of us vampires taking back the world that was stolen from us.”

Her fellow vampires nodded in unison, at one point, vampires lived all over the world, but now they were forced into exile into the colder regions of the world.

“The traitor made contact with Potter, he will be destroyed as well,” continued Eskara. “This time, I will personally deal with Harry Potter.”

“When shall we depart, Mistress?” questioned one of the female vampires.

“If the stories are true, then Harry Potter will foolishly come to us, along with his terrapin friends,” replied Eskara icily. “His blind devotion to a world that would shun him when his usefulness is outlived is quiet sickening but he does have a use.”

The other vampires in the room looked at Eskara in a questioning manner.

“You will all find out soon enough,” replied Eskara coldly. “Right now, we must make plans for our siege of the city as soon as the rituals are complete and the sun is completely blocked out from reaching this city.”

Back in the lair, Harry had all of his brothers weapons along with his weapons laid out on the table, as his mother sat on the couch with Regulus and Alexandra.

“I’ve sent word to the American Wizarding Government that I am in a safe house, not to come looking for me, but I did tell them to keep an eye out for any strange activity around the area of the warehouse,” explained Alexandra.

“Alex, do you really think they can find us here?” asked Lily which Regulus snorted.

“Obviously if they were able to breach the wards of a town, they could easily penetrate a little sink hole with this,” replied Regulus but both Alexandra and Lily ignored the snarky vampire.

“I don’t know, but it’s always a possibility,” said Alexandra in a resigned voice. “I’m starting to feel the effects of having sat behind a desk all those years, I’m out of practice in dueling, I could barely hold off those vampires.”

“You did fine enough, Harry could barely hold them off,” said Lily who looked worried. “I hope this plan of Harry’s works.”

“It will, it has to,” replied Alexandra, but there was a lingering amount of doubt evident in her eyes.

From the kitchen, Leo, Raph, Don, and Mikey exited it, carrying all the garlic they could, with Master Splinter following closely behind.

“That’s all of it, Harry,” confirmed Leo.

“Should be just enough, barley, we need a fighting advantage,” muttered Harry as he picked up Mikey’s nunchucks and a piece of garlic, before he magically fused the pieces of garlic on the ends and center of the nunchucks.

“I get it, if there is garlic on our weapons, it would effect the vampires when we hit them,” said Don.

“Yes, quite right, using the vampires’ allergic reaction to garlic is quiet ingenious Harry, but do remember that a quick fix will only get so far,” cautioned Master Splinter.

“Yes, but this is only until we find a definite way to beat those vampires for good and to do so, we need to find a way to reverse the weather changing process as there is no way they can thrive in a warm climate,” responded Harry as he modified Leo’s katana, followed by Raph’s Sais, and Don’s Bo Staff, with just enough garlic.

“You didn’t leave any for yourself Harry,” said Mikey in surprise but Harry raised his wand in a significant manner. “Oh yeah, right, the fire thing.”

“Okay, the weapons have been properly modified,” said Harry as he looked up. “I figure we need to split into two teams to properly tackle this issue. Mum, you, Alexandra, and Regulus can search above ground and myself, Master Splinter, and the guys can search below ground.”

“Make sense. After all you six have a better understanding of the sewer system,” admitted Lily with a nod.

“And if we find anything, we contact each other on the mirrors,” added Leo.

“Most importantly, we are going after dangerous dark creatures, so be careful,” added Alexandra and the others nodded, before they set off to go their separate ways.

In the Potter residence, Hailey opened her eyes, a burning sensation filling her body. She quickly kicked the blankets on her bed and rose up to her feet, feeling extremely weak and dizzy, nearly collapsing from heat exhaustion. As quick as she could manage under her severely weakened condition, towards the bathroom, before she turned on the cold water. Taking her hands and splashing the ice cold water in her face only gave Hailey a bit of relief.

Instinctively, Hailey looked up at the mirror to her reflection and stepped back slightly. Her auburn hair was nearly turned black and her eyes turned from emerald green into a nearly vibrant red. Her skin had become increasingly pale since the moment she had collapsed a couple of hours ago.

Sweat rolled down Hailey’s face, as heat began to consume her body with every second so she did the only thing she thought was logical, she bolted from the bathroom, managing to stagger down the steps, and she reached the front door. With all the energy she could muster, Hailey pushed the door open, before she staggered out of the front door and collapsed face first the snow. The below zero temperatures outside and the blistering winds made Hailey feel at piece, but in her mind, it felt as if the girl’s humanity was being stripped slowly away.

At that moment, two vampires swooped down, slowly morphing in their humanoid form after having been patrolling over the city in the form of bats. They had sensed a weakened, partially turned vampire laying in the snow. As they arrived to the ground, their suspicions proved to be well founded.

“We must get her out of here, it could compromise the Mistress’s plans,” replied one of the vampires as she looked down at the figure laying in the snow.

“Absolutely, let us bring her,” agreed the second female vampire, as they scooped up the partially turned vampire, before they quickly moved before any Aurors had noticed their presence.

In the sewers, Raph, Don, Mikey, Leo, Master Splinter, and Harry walked down each tunnel but it seemed to be getting more frigid from each tunnel.

“Look!” shouted Mikey as he pointed towards an underground river that had been frozen solid.

“None of the water had been frozen since we got here,” replied Raph.

“That means that the mystical box can’t be far away,” said Harry as he walked down the corridor.

“Stop, my sons,” prompted Master Splinter and the Turtles and Harry stopped. Master Splinter picked up a large rock and threw it towards the next doorway. In a second, the rock froze solid, as if suspended in mid air.

“Whoa, dude!” exclaimed Mikey but Harry stopped, it was very hard to tell in the darkness of the sewer but he saw small waves of magical energy spiraling from the doorway, light blue waves that looked similar to most freezing spells.

“Look closely at the doorway,” said Harry and Don nodded his head, with the others following slowly, Master Splinter just standing there, he had sensed it first.

“We obviously can’t go through,” grumbled Raph.

“We go up, there’s no other way,” replied Leo. “The best I can figure is we are underneath the abandoned Cayman Observatory Facility.”

“That old place’s been abandoned for years,” said Raph.

“So it would be a perfect place for all sorts of creatures that go bump in the night to take up residence in,” concluded Mikey as Harry removed his mirror from his pocket.

“Mum, are you there?” inquired Harry and Lily’s face appeared on the mirror, so Harry decided to give the information. “We have a good idea where the mystical box is, it’s underneath the abandoned Cayman Observation Facility.”

“Really, Harry, it just so happens that Alexandra, Regulus, and I are outside of that place right now,” replied Lily. “And it’s emitting…”

“Light blue rays of magical energy,” cut in Harry and Lily nodded. “They also freeze anything that touches them solid.”

“Yes, we know,” confirmed Lily. “Regulus reckons that he knows a way inside around the back, but he’s back now to check out those waves aren’t coming from the back as well.”

“Well they are coming from underneath as well,” said Harry. “A brief trip to the surface and we’ll join you when you get in.”

“Harry, that won’t be…” started Lily, but his mother was cut off.

“Mum, Mum are you there!” shouted Harry in a horrified voice as he leaned his ear towards the mirror.

Above ground, Lily and Alexandra backed off as Regulus had a smug look plastered on his face, as he motioned for a group of male vampires to move forward.

“There they are,” prompted Regulus. “I believe our deal has concluded.”

“BLACK, YOU TRAITORIOUS BASTARD!” shouted Alexandra but Lily grabbed the sleeve of her friend’s robes to prevent her from attacking him.

“Yes, Regulus Black, the Mistress will be pleased that you lead those two straight to us,” said one of the male vampires. “She has plans for the thief to join the other one.”

“Okay, Lily, you normally have a good idea right about now,” hissed Alexandra, the realization that she had spent way too much time sitting behind a desk recently and not enough time thinking on her feet as she fought for something like this.

“Let them capture us, don’t fight,” whispered Lily and Alexandra looked at Lily like she had gone insane. “They’ll lead us right inside and to the mystical device.”

Four of the vampires reached forward, two grabbing Lily and the other two grabbing Alexandra, as Regulus stood back, looking rather pleased with himself.

“Why?” asked Lily in a cool voice.

“I’m a Slytherin, a snake, and it’s my nature to save my own skin,” muttered Regulus in a low voice, so only Lily and him could hear him, before he spoke loud enough for his voice to be picked up by the mirror. “It’s nice to see our plan to trick them had worked, soon the Turtles and Harry Potter will be in our grasp.”

Back in the sewer, the Turtles, Harry, and Master Splinter looked disgusted at what they heard.

“That no good, that horrid, that double crossing…” started Raph but Harry shook his head.

“We need to find a way inside,” said Harry in a forced calm voice. “There is one way we can still get in that they won’t expect, from above.”

“I shall stand guard here my sons and let you know if there is any trouble,” suggested Master Splinter, as he leaned on his walking stick.

“Right, Master Splinter, now let’s go,” prompted Leo, as he made his way around towards the nearest exit, with Mikey, Raph, Don, and Harry following him as they made there out of the sewer.

On the roof just adjacent from the abandoned Cayman Observatory Facility, The Turtles and Harry looked across, where the blue light waves only reached the second to last floor but didn’t touch the roof in any area.

“Looks like you were right Harry,” said Raph. “Still if we drop…”

“I know,” replied Harry darkly as he looked across the street but Don surveyed the sky above, something appeared very peculiar.

“There’s ice crystals suspended in the sky, but scientifically speaking that’s impossible,” said Don.

“Magically speaking it’s highly unlikely,” added Harry. “We can’t worry about that now, we need to get inside, get Mum and Alexandra out safely, and disable the device, let’s move.”

Very gingerly, Harry leapt from one building to another, with Don, Leo, Raph, and Mikey following suit. Looking around, Harry attempted to scope out an entry point.

“There’s our ticket in!” shouted Mikey as he pointed to a section of the roof that seemed to be a bit weaker than all the others. “Shouldn’t be too much problem to cave it in with a little effort.”

Harry raised his wand and blasted a hole through the roof, large enough for his brothers to slip inside, with Harry slowly following behind.

“Okay, that works too,” admitted Mikey but in an instant, several male vampires walked down the corridor, ready to atone from their past failures.

“Kill the Turtles, capture Harry Potter!” declared what appeared to be the leaders curtly but the Turtles withdrew their weapons. The vampires didn’t seem to be phased by this action, until they realized their adversaries weapons were coated in garlic.

“Attack!” shouted Leo, and the four Turtles moved into battle, the vampires backing away with horrified shrieks with Don’s Bo Staff connecting with the uncovered chest of one of the vampires, causing it to blister. Two vampires tried to attack Mikey, but Mikey swung around, before he cracked them right across the faces with the garlic chucks, causing their cheeks to swell up to epic proportions.

One of the vampires grabbed Raph, fangs bared and ready to bite down onto the terrapin’s neck.

“EAT THIS!” screamed Raph as he stabbed the Sai into the mouth of the vampire. The vampire backed off, his lips swelling up and Raph took advantage of his allergic reaction and flung him across the room.

Leo whirled around and sliced the chest of one of the vampires with his katana. This attack caused the vampire to give an inhumane shriek as it dropped to the ground.

Several vampires advanced on Harry, but Harry concentrated hard, before he conjured a large ball of blinding orange light, before he tapped his wand towards it and it began to hiss.

“To the stairway, quickly, if my calculations are correct, the mystical box is the next level down!” shouted Harry and Leo, Don, Raph, and Mikey ran, knocking out a few vampires, before Harry blasted the door open and made his way down the stairs, with his brothers following closely behind just as the orange ball exploded, filling the corridor with blinding sunlight.

“Are they…” started Mikey, but Harry shook his head.

“They’re severely weakened but only exposure to a massive amount of sunlight can destroy them, something that no wizard can conjure,” said Harry quickly as they made there way towards a circular room, leading to a large glass door.

Harry stepped forward and peered through the glass. There was a small, wooden box with several cords hooked to it, leading to what looked to be telescopes left behind, modified to emit the blue magical waves that were causing the weather in the city.

“Everyone on your toes, it seems too easy,” muttered Harry as he waved his wand, causing the door to open and slipped inside. The others soon joined him, as they crept around, careful not to move quickly to trigger any type of defense.

A second later, the door behind them swung shut. Raph and Mikey sprung around, and attempted to pry the door open, but it was no good. It seemed to be sealed shut on his own accord.

“Something tells me that we walked right into a trap,” said Leo.

“Extremely astute, mutant,” replied an icy cold female voice, as she walked out of the shadows, with several female vampires flanking her, all with crystal blue eyes and jet black hair.

“Eskara, I presume,” remarked Harry in an equally calm voice.

“You presume correctly, human,” said Eskara coldly as she surveyed Harry with disdain. “The famous Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, you don’t seem as impressive as I were lead to believe. Then again, the human race is so easily amused that it’s pitiful.”

Eskara stood, her minions looking at the Turtles and Harry with a lack of emotion, if they were not allowed to show anything other than their blank expressions.

“As you mentioned, my agents in this city worked with a small time criminal who called himself Chronos, supplying him with a wide variety of weaponry that was developed up in Canada,” continued Eskara. “He served as a distraction long enough for my followers to swipe the mystical box and set it up at this long forgotten place, which will serve as a palace to my new world for vampires. Humans will resume their rightful place as slave labor to us magical creatures, and New York City is just the beginning, as soon as enough humans are sacrificed, the artifact will have enough power to envelope the entire world but with just one sacrifice, I can ensure the sun will never shine on New York City again.”

“Okay, lady, are you cracked in the head, there’s no way we’re letting you get away with this and in fact, we’ll bust your little toy!” yelled Raph, as he prepared to fight, with the other Turtles and Harry nodded, their faces set in a determined expression.

“You mutants are not unlike these humans in your arrogance, as if I would allow you to stop me,” replied Eskara as she motioned for her vampires to bring a figure with her face covered. “I knew you would attempt to stop me, so it was quite fortunate that when I well I fulfilled my needs tonight, I converted someone you five know very well.”

Two of the vampires removed the cloak of the face, to reveal Hailey Potter which caused her brothers to step back in absolute horror.

“NO!” shouted all five of them in unison, as they took in her features, dark jet black hair hung from her face, her skin was pale, and as her mouth opened, it appeared that she had started to grow fangs.

“She’ll be one of us soon enough, the conversion process is not complete, but to get to us, you’ll going to have to hurt her,” said Eskara in wicked tone. “Of course, since I was the one who bit her, I can hurt her, unless you drop your weapons and your wand as well, Mr. Potter.”

Leo, Don, Raph, Mikey, and Harry looked at each other, realizing they had no choice but to agree and several weapons, along with Harry’s wand dropped to the ground as Eskara nodded approvingly, before she snapped her fingers and two of her followers swooped forward, before they pulled Harry to the side.

The alpha female vampire stepped to the side and tweaked a knob on one of the telescopes, before she spun around and a large jet of blue light flew through the room causing Harry to gasp in horror.

Leo, Don, Raph, and Mikey had all been frozen solid, without little thought at all from Eskara and she casually spun the telescope back out the window.

“They will not interfere and in a matter of moments, they will die from a combination of a lack of oxygen and severe hypothermia,” said Eskara coldly as she looked at Harry. “The other two are safe for the moment, in the holding cells in the basement, they’re will be plenty of time to deal with them later.

Eskara nodded to the two vampires that were holding and a large stone table rose from the ground. They threw Harry onto it, before thick anti-magical restraints shot up, binding Harry, as Eskara spun the microscope towards Harry.

“It will take a few minutes to summon enough power to sacrifice you,” said Eskara shortly as she tweaked several more knobs and the telescope began to glow. “A sacrifice that will ensure the sun will never shine in this town again. In the end, Mistress Eskara will succeed where that insect Lord Voldemort failed numerous times. I can’t say it’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

Eskara and her followers left, as Hailey turned around, a look of acknowledgement appearing in her eyes.

“Harry,” muttered Hailey as the other vampires looked at their mistress for guidance.

“She still has traces of her humanity, brought out by seeing her brother in a perilous situation, but that will be lost when the conversion is full,” said Eskara as she grabbed Hailey forcefully by the arm and pulled her to the outside, followed by her followers as Harry looked up, the thought that he only had scant minutes before he was the victim of some vampire ritual sacrifice to entomb New York into eternal darkness.