The Neo Corpse

You might recall the neo corpse we got ahold of last spring as a result of that puppy mill rescue that turned out to be a neo ambush. Jessica was killed, as were several humans, and some werewolves and a weredog. It was a joint operation.

We took the corpse to a large lab were weredog scientists work as humans, but are able to special side projects. It is in the KC area.

The weredog who ran the show is named Lena. She is a good looker, let me tell you. But I digress.

It was last July, after the 4th as I recall. My ears were still ringing from Jack nearly blowing up the neighborhood. I and Warin went to see Lena. She had gotten word to me that she needed to see me, that she had findings from the neo autopsy that she need to share with me.

"They're poikilothermic."

"Beg pardon?" I said. It was past midnight when we got to the facility. She hardly said hello, just led us back to the cold-as-a-meat-locker lab room and whipped a sheet off the corpse and started tossing out alien words. "Can you repeat that in English?" I said.

"They are cold blooded," she said. "Look. We are homoiothermic, which means warm-blooded. They are poikilothermic, cold-blooded, like fish."

It took a while for that to sink it. How can that be? They are mammalian, aren't they? They evolved from a mammalian species, so they must be mammalian, right?

Lena said apparently not, that evolution has a tendency of adapting itself in unexpected ways. I asked what are the benefits of them being cold blooded? Lena said she could not say for certain. Much time and effort has been spent since then, these many months, trying to figure out an answer.

I am in Atlanta, looking for answers, meeting with weredogs and werewolves here who have them. The consensus is that there are numerous benefits to the neos for being warm blooded, in terms of diet, heat retention and energy production. But the main benefit, it is agreed, is that being cold blooded literally allows them to be cold blooded figuratively.

Neo's have no altruistic fibers in their bodies. Connection is not a call for them. For them there is no safety in numbers. We knew this about them. This helps to better understand it.

For centuries I have been sworn to kill werewolves, believing them to be a nasty, stinking blight upon the earth. Hell, werewolves are cuddly and aromatic in comparison to cold-blooded adversary bent on the destruction of everything.

By the way, werescientists are calling these 2 neo species "homo neos" and "canis neos," in case you are curious.