NESTS

NESTS (ネスツ, Nesutsu) was a secret syndicate that used the King of Fighters '99, 2000, and 2001 tournaments to carry out their plans for world domination, being the main antagonists of the second KOF story arc. Their ultimate plan was to collect fighters' battle data in the tournament and defeat them by using another team or one of their agents. Once the world was ridden of its only protectors, the cartel would then conquer it, using the data obtained to make their army of unstoppable fighters. Their main headquarters was located in a space satellite hovering over Earth.

They possessed the ability to create super-powered humans, space ships and satellites, and were able to mass produce thousands of Kyo clones in a year. Their scientific advancements shocked the globe, causing former agents to be labeled as terrorists and targets for top-secret research. The cartel ended with Igniz's death, though Diana and Foxy have since been working to restore it, presumably with more benign goals, not knowing that there are remnants of the organization still carrying out the original shady agenda.

Story
Rulers of the Darkness= NESTS is a secret organization that had control over all kinds of criminal activity throughout the world. Their dealings made many corporations around the globe to go bankrupt, and so their members were wanted by all investigation agencies, but no one could find their headquarters, since it was on a satellite hovering around the world. NESTS had a high-technological arsenal of weapons and machines at their disposal, which allowed them to research on many fields of science, specially on bio-engineering.

Somewhere during the Orochi Saga (possibly during KOF '95-'96), they learned about the Orochi power as well as Kyo Kusanagi. When Kyo was knocked out after the fight with Orochi, they kidnapped him and beginning the "Kusanagi Cloning Program". This lead to many creations to be made, such as the Kyo Clones, Krizalid, and K'- who would eventually be NESTS's ultimate downfall.
 * -|Orochi Saga=

To fulfill their plans of world domination, they bought the sponsoring rights of the King of Fighters, and hosted The King of Fighters '99. In reality, NESTS used KOF as a tool for "Project Krizalid". They planed to collect the data from the fighters of the tournament and use it to create bio-engineered super-soldiers capable of defeating all the fighters, then without resistance conquer the world with their army. However, K' and his team put an end to their plans, which lead to Krizalid's death.
 * -|NESTS Chronicles=

In 2000, Heidern & Clone Zero (who was a NESTS operative impersonating Ling) hosts The King of Fighters 2000, in the hopes of luring K' and Maxima out and making them reveal where NESTS's headquarters are. Unknownst to Heidern, Clone Zero request Diana and Foxy to take their newest creation with them, Kula, the Anti-K' weapon. During the 3rd round of the tournament, Kula froze the arena and was ordered to kill K'. She fails and is forced to retreat. During the climax of the tournament Zero reveals himself and decides to betray both NESTS and Heidern for his own goals, and planned to use the "Project '00" plan, which involved using the fighters energy to charge the Zero Cannon, which was able to destroy South Town in a single shot. His plans were foiled by the combined efforts of K' and his team defeating him in battle, Heidern, and the NESTS team Kula Diamond, Foxy, Diana and Candy Diamond destroying the Zero Cannon.

In 2001, NESTS hosts The King of Fighters 2001 in hopes of taking out all of their enemies once and for all. To ensure their success, NESTS sent in their own team to participate; The NESTS Team, composed by Foxy, Kula, Angel, and their newest creation, K9999 (the 9999th and final Kyo clone, built from the ground up). Their team were defeated by the K' Team (who would win the tournament).

When the K' Team reached the headquarters, they came face to face with Igniz, who killed Nests before their eyes. Igniz reveals the true reason why NESTS hosted the KOF 2001 tournament was in hopes of becoming a new god. His hopes were short-lived when he was defeated by K'. Cursing his failure and declaring himself a demon instead, Igniz attempts to destroy those who oppose him by plummeting NESTS' main headquarters out of orbit. However, the fortunate passengers in the falling station survive the heat inside it (apparently thanks to Ron). With Igniz's death, it signaled the end of the NESTS cartel and its saga.

Despite being believed to be all but extinct, in reality as of The King of Fighters XIV spin-off manga, A New Beginning, remnants of the evil NESTS cartel are still at large while continuing their evil scheme, as well as revealing to had been infiltrating in pre-The King of Fighters '99 tournaments in gathering the fighters’ combat data ever since.
 * -|XIV Arc=

Executives
Ranked in order mentioned on the Ureyusa development blog for Maximum Impact:

Agents
This list also includes people who have left the organization.
 * K' (Defected, becomes their sworn enemy)
 * Maxima (Defected with K')
 * Whip (Defected, joins Ikari Warriors and K')
 * Kula Diamond (Defected with Diana and Foxy after destroying Zero Cannon in KOF 2000)
 * Candy Diamond (Wrecked while Kula destroyed Zero Cannon, currently scrap metal; Kula intends to repair her)
 * K9999 (Alive, whereabouts unknown after battle with K' in KOF 2001)
 * Angel (Alive, defected NESTS after Igniz's death)
 * Kusanagi (Alternate universe version, not Chizuru's magic clone; version displayed in KOF 2002 and its remake)
 * Kyo-1 (Fate unknown, possibly neutralized by Heidern's operatives or Clone Zero in KOF 99)
 * Kyo-2 (Fate unknown, possibly neutralized by Heidern's operatives or Clone Zero in KOF 99)
 * Nameless (Canon fate unknown)
 * Isolde (Died during an experiment, currently an entity in Nameless' gloves)
 * Dr. Makishima (Alive, a constant target of kidnapping, has defected NESTS; currently in seclusion)
 * Clone of Ling (Defected with Cloned Zero; killed by Heidern at the end of KOF 2000)
 * Sylvie Paula Paula (Alive, one of the remaining members of NESTS during Igniz's demise, and defects the organization due to her past trauma when she was a member of that organization)

NESTS