NESTS Chronicles

The NESTS Chronicles, also known as the NESTS Saga is the second story arc in The King of Fighters series. It covers the events found in The King of Fighters '99, The King of Fighters 2000 and The King of Fighters 2001.

Past Events
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. Their members were wanted by all investigation agencies, but no one could find their headquarters, since their true location 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, specifically on bio-engineering.

Sometime 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", a experiment where children were turned into human weapons based on Kyo's appearance. One of these children for this program was a boy with an unknown name, and his sister Seirah. In 1998, the boy was made to participate in the Kusanagi cloning program. He was infused with Kyo Kusanagi's DNA, which gave him the power of pyrokinesis, as well as a clone based on his appearance named Krizalid. During the program, his memory was tinkered with, and he was made to believe that he was Krizalid's clone. Any real memories from his past has either been erased by NESTS, forgotten, or repressed. With his memories suppressed, and now working for NESTS, the boy with no name now became known as K'; who would eventually become NESTS's ultimate downfall.

New Challengers, New Rules
Two years after The King of Fighters '97, The King of Fighters tournament returned in full force. However, this new tournament came with a surprising new rule; Teams were no longer comprised of 3 members, but rather 4. This 4th member of a Team would be dubbed as "Strikers", allowing them to be summoned at any time during a match for assistance, albeit for limited attempts. With these new rules in place, every single team was shaken up with new dynamics:


 * Benimaru Nikaido and Shingo Yabuki, two of Kyo's closest friends, are given a special invitation to KOF with preset members for their team, with those members being K' and Maxima. With this, the Japan Team is undone, and becomes this year's Hero Team. Goro Daimon, Kyo and Benimaru's friend, returns to his Judo carrer.


 * Mai Shiranui joins with the Fatal Fury Team, fulfilling her desire to be close to her loved Andy.


 * Takuma Sakazaki returns to the Art of Fighting Team, after two tournaments off.


 * A mysterious new agent by the name Whip joins the Ikari Warriors Team with Leona, Ralf and Clark.


 * Sie Kensou suddenly lost his Psycho Power, but appears in the possession of a boy named Bao. Confused why this is happening, the young child joins KOF along with Athena Asamiya and Chin Gentsai to form the Psycho Soldier Team.


 * King takes over the leadership of the Women Fighters Team, and Kasumi returns to fight for the team after one tournament off, after an invitation of the bartender and Mary. Li Xiangfei also joins up with them.


 * Jhun Hoon, Kim Kaphwan's old friend and rival, joins the Korea Justice Team to assist in Kim's "Rehabilitation Project".


 * Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami enters to this tournament alone (Iori for the second time solo). Both wish to know the intentions of the cartel.

Fallen Angel
Once again, all of the teams fought will all their strength, culminating with the Hero Team winning The King of Fighters '99. However, during the tournament, several reports from many agencies reported that many people with the appearance of Kyo Kusanagi have shown up in various locations around the world, a feat that Heidern requests the Ikari Team to look into.

During the finals, the Hero Team is taken to an underground base to meet Krizalid, an agent who reveals himself to be a member of the mysterious organization NESTS. Krizalid reveals that the whole tournament was used to record combat data from all of the fights he obtained to activate an army of Kyo clones that NESTS themselves had created after the fight against Orochi. He is faced in two states: first he appears with a special coat that analyzes an opponent's data. Once he's defeated, he burns away his coat and increases his strength while having stronger moves. K' used everything that he had and more to take down Krizalid.

After Krizalid's defeat, his superior kills him via falling debris while other members of NESTS attack K' and Maxima, who are both revealed to be former NESTS agents and that the duo succeed in defeating their enemies before making their escape from the collapsing location of their battle against Krizalid. K' then discovers that he is a test subject designed to replicate Kyo's techniques. Interested in learning more about his stolen past, he decides to take down NESTS, with Maxima helping him.

Aftermath
After caused an explosion, which caused many of the fighters to get caught up in. Terry Bogard however, was nowhere to be found, with his glove being the only thing left. Takuma Sakazaki was seemingly crushed underneath the rubble, although he humorously broke out of it shortly afterwards. Athena was caught underneath the falling rubble and passed out. Though he has no memory of it, Kensou saved her with a formidable latent energy known as the Dragon Spirit.

A few hours after the tournament's conclusion, Whip returned back to the area where the final battle took place and found Krizalid, still barely alive from the crash. She asks Krizalid if he remembers his father's face, to which he discovers that he cannot remember. Whip reveals to him the reason why he couldn't is because he was not her brother; K' was. Krizalid would shortly die realizing that he was K' clone. His corpse was later taken into custody by the Ikari mercenaries, with Whip crying silently.

Anti-K'
Nearly a year after the events of the 1999 tournament, Heidern is determined to figure out the objective of the NESTS cartel so that he can stop them from achieving their ruthless ambition. A fellow commander and long-time friend of Heidern, named Ling, tells the veteran fighter that K' and Maxima may hold the key to locating the whereabouts of the mysterious organization. Using this information, Heidern decides to focus his efforts on finding the duo so that they can be captured and interrogated for information.

Depending on the player's performance during the tournament, Kula Diamond might appear to eliminate K', but fails from within her mission. Shortly afterwards, Ling and a couple of his associates suddenly attack and betray Heidern near the end of the tournament, the former revealing himself to be a clone of the real Ling who was murdered in the past and being replaced via the machinations of a high-ranking NESTS member named Zero, who seeks to destroy NESTS itself and create a new world order under his own rule.

Zero Cannon
Through the accumulated fighting power he had gathered during the tournament, Zero initiates and utilizes a space-based satellite weapon named the "Zero Cannon", with which he sends a powerful energy blast from it straight towards Earth, destroying most of South Town via the energy blast's explosive impact upon it. After Zero's defeat in combat, he attempts but fails to use the cannon again while Heidern swiftly and forcibly removes the clone Ling's remote control of the cannon while dispatching him in the process. If the player defeats Kula previously, her supporters Diana and Foxy stop Zero while Kula destroys the Zero Cannon herself.

At the finals of the tournament, the Hero Team are taken to an underground mansion via a hidden elevator and are greeted by a mysterious but sinister-looking man. At the same time, Ling and a couple of his associates suddenly betray Heidern. In the underground mansion, the man known as Zero reveal he had the real Ling killed and replaced with a clone in disguise. Also, Zero tells the fighters that he was a former member of NESTS with plans to eliminate the cartel by using a powerful space-based weapon known as the Zero Cannon. To demonstrate his power, Zero fires a warm-up shot of the cannon towards Earth and wipes a city off the map.

The fighters battle against Zero not realizing that their energy powers the Zero Cannon. Zero is defeated and tries to fire the cannon again but it explodes. When K' and Maxima explore the ruined city above them, Whip appears and joins their cause to defeat NESTS.

The King of Fighters 2001
An entire city was wiped off the globe with the use of the satellite weapon, Zero Cannon, during King of Fighters 2000.

This incident was reported to be the result of an artificial satellite crashing to earth, and adorned the front pages to various newspapers of countries all over the world.

A legion of individuals called for the end to the KOF tournament which always invited some sort of accident, but ironically this fighting tournament with a bad history once again regained considerable popularity.

The interest in the tournament rivaled that of the '97 contest, nay, exceeded perhaps exceeded it.

But for this tournament carried out on the international stage, an astonishing fact came to light.

A team from NESTS has entered the tournament!

What are the true objectives of the event's sponsor? There's no guarantee that even with this tournament, tragedy will not repeat itself....

The third title in the King of Fighters: The NESTS Chronicles. At last, this tournament will end it all!"

The NESTS cartel decides to host the 2001 KOF tournament so that they can use it as a method to eliminate their enemies and enter their own team into the ranks.

In the tournament finals, the Hero Team boards a special blimp that is soon revealed to be a spaceship. There they meet Original Zero, whose clone decimated the cartels' secrecy with his scheme in the previous year. He congratulates them for reaching the finals and states that they're headed for NESTS's real headquarters. He decides to entertain his passengers with a match and is backed up by his pet black lion Glugan, Ron, and Krizalid. Despite the oppressive force of his group, he is defeated moments before the ship docks at NESTS's space satellite. He stays on board the exploding ship and urges the Hero team to proceed forward.

Once inside NESTS's satellite, they face the NESTS leader, Nests. He expresses wishes for his renegade agents to return to the organization and is soon afterward killed by Igniz, who claims ownership of the cartel. Igniz also reveals that K', Kula, Krizalid, K9999 and Whip are guinea pigs/creations made for his own personal entertainment. Kula, who was separated from the rest of her team and present at the time, also heard her origin as an artificial life form. Declaring himself a god, he assaults the team as his first act of "divine retribution" and defeats them. As soon as he's about to kill K', other fighters came to intervene and help in the fight including all team leaders, Kyo and Iori. When he's defeated, he proclaims that he is fallen god and names himself a "demon" instead. He plunges the satellite through earth's atmosphere in an attempt to demolish his competition.

Thankfully, the satellite crashes into the ocean and the fighters aboard were somehow saved from the explosion, presumably thanks to Ron. K' saves Kula from drowning; in gratitude, she and her guardian, Diana, ally themselves with K' and company. K9999 and Angel are presumably still alive though their exact whereabouts are unknown. Foxy is also stabbed by them though her apparent on screen death is later revealed to be false.

The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match (Non-Canonical)

 * This information is based on materials that is currently not considered canon within the NESTS Chronicles, due to K9999's eventual omission from succeeding story series and being replaced, as seen below.

Project Zhe Prime
Nameless is the 9,999th K' clone and the only survivor of "Project ". He is known by NESTS by his codename "'" or "Zhe Prime". Existing as an experiment subject to perfect the Kyo Kusanagi cloning program that was first achieved with K', he only knew pain and suffering from excruciating endurance tests, with his "brothers" (other clones dubbed as "K' children") being guinea pigs to the Kusanagi DNA, with gruesome results from explosions and genetic mutations, or even death. Nameless himself has come close to death at least 180 times.

Nameless's miserable existence would one day be eased with Isolde, having fallen in love with her. Whenever he was badly injured, he would see the beautiful yet sad girl near the infirmary. Isolde became his motivation to live on and endure the painful experiments, and little did Nameless know he would also indirectly help Isolde improve her own powers, and that his attraction for her was mutual.

During the course of the experiments, Nameless eventually gains control and strength over his power. Once the laboratory members deemed him fit to wield the Kusanagi flame, his custom glove was grafted onto his left arm. The glove is meant to enhance his strength of will, which would theoretically make him as adept as Kyo. A similar glove design was originally planned for K' but he left before it could be used on him.

He was immediately sent to Earth to test his fighting skills, and with him being able to kill by mere touch (a tap on the shoulder), demonstrated unintentionally with an unfortunate woman victim, he was designated as an assassin. On one of his assignments, he cornered a man who was trying to escape from the syndicate. In a bid to spare his life, the escapee confessed the truth behind Isolde.

She was a part of the Anti K' Project, similar to Kula Diamond, and was given the power to control ice. However, her abilities were deemed to be inadequate until she saw Nameless. The organization soon noticed that Nameless and Isolde's abilities are increasing by meeting each other, and so they were allowed to routinely see one another to bring out their full potential. Regrettably, Isolde died from her testing. Rather than waste her progress, NESTS crafted her DNA into Nameless's glove. Her abilities keep the flames pacified until needed for use.

Nameless doesn't know if he should believe the man, but he realizes that his words have weight to them. He hasn't seen Isolde since he received his glove. Not wanting to risk losing Isolde, he unquestionably follows any orders he's given by NESTS. He hopes to one day return her to her rightful body and perhaps, even bring her back to life.

Debutant Characters
Characters who made their canonical debut in The King of Fighters series, ordered by their first appearance in the series.

Returning Characters
Characters who are returning from previous installments in The King of Fighters series, ordered by their first appearance in the series.

Non-Canon Characters
Characters who are not playable in this saga canonically, but do appear in Dream Match games, ordered by their first appearance in the series.

Character Strikers
Non-Playable Characters who appear as Strikers.

NPC Characters
Non-playable characters who appear during the saga's lore.

Characters & Teams' Participations

 * Teams in which the characters who participated in the saga were inserted.

Trivia

 * This the only story arc with teams composed of 4 characters, and the only to use the Striker System.


 * The two first chapters of the saga, The King of Fighters '99 and The King of Fighters 2000, are the only games to use the system point-up and point-down (A.K.A. Battle Ability), a system in which the points earned by the player increase or decrease according to performance during the game, and is only available in the Story mode of each game. This system is abolished in The King of Fighters 2001, and the series goes back to the system accumulation system, in which the player accumulates points according to his performance in Story mode.
 * Due to the Striker system (and 4-vs-4 system, in The King of Fighters 2001), the maximum number of rounds is 5 (7 in KOF 2001). However, when the last round ends in a tie, a decisive round, under the name "FINAL ROUND", appears.


 * Just like with The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002 (and its remake The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match), is not listed in the canonical story, as it is a "Dream Match" game, and are, therefore, non-canonical. Beside that, this games returns with the 3-vs-3 system.
 * However, KOF 2002 UM contains several story elements to Nameless, canonical or not.
 * The King of Fighters Neowave, a game released in the Atomiswave system (SEGA hardware), is based on KOF 2002 and, therefore, non-canonical.
 * Due to K9999's copyright issues, he was removed from the series' history. For the sake of this summary, K9999's story will be included in this synopsis, although it is advised to check the Controversy section in K9999's page for a more in-depth explanation for his removal.


 * Several novels for the NESTS Chronicles are also canon, adding more to the lore.


 * This is the only story arc which to use the expression "FIGHT" before the matches.
 * This is also the only story arc which the expression "K.O." (Knock Out) isn't announced, appearing only on the screen. This occurs only in the two chapters of the saga.
 * The King of Fighters '94 (and its remake The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout), a prologue of the Orochi Saga, also use the expression "FIGHT" before the matches.


 * About the striker system, there are some informations:
 * In KOF '99, the strikers are automatic, i.e., when the player choose the order of his team, the 4th character is the striker.
 * In KOF '99 Evolution, there is an option to choose some characters as strikers, the EXTRA STRIKER. The player can choose two versions of the characters: DARK and JUSTICE. The Extra Strikers never appears as playable characters.


 * The two first games of this saga were produced and released by former SNK (before the company's bankruptcy), and the two last by Playmore and Eolith (the KOF 2002 remake and Neowave version were produced and released by SNK PLAYMORE).