The King Of Fighters 97 final battle was an event that which the world has never seen the likes before. As Kyo Ksanagi, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura, Heirs to the ancient 3 Japanese clans, fought and defeated Orochi. But unknown to everyone, this massive battle was been observed by a shadowy organization:The cartel known as NESTS.
After their battle with Orochi, the three heroes lost consciousness , a Nests team used the opportunity to kidnap Kyo for unknown reasons. Upon waking up, both Iori and Chizuru were surprised to not find Kyo nearby. Days, weeks, and months would go by and the world has no idea where Kyo Kusanagi is.
The massive KOf97 battle and fallout was thought to be enough to have the competition cancelled, but the world was surprised to see new invitations sent to fighters around the world, calling them to a new tournament: The king of fighters 99. This new tournament would change the competition’s format: Each team will now consist of 4 fighters instead of three. While the battles themselves are still 3 vs 3, the 4th character is dubbed a striker, and can be summoned at any time during the match to help in the fight, but in a limited number of times.
Benimaru Nikaido, Kyo kusanagi’s closest friend, received an invitation to be part of a special team, made of him as well as the self declared kyo pupil Shingo Yabuki. The two other fighters were new to the scene K’ and Maxima. Both Benimaru and Shingo were confused about the identity of these two new fighters as they have never heard their names and are unknown in the world of martial arts.
Heidern, the leader of the ikari warriors has also received an invitation, but decides to not participate, instead, he orders his mercenaries, Leona, Ralf and Clark to Join the competition to investigate this year’s event. As for the 4th member, Heidern recruits a new mercenary to the squad the young military member Sally, who goes by the name Whip as she is an expert in using and controlling a whip as a weapon.
Many fighters join the competition to prove their strength including the Fatal fury Team, the Art of fighting team, and the Korea team. Other teams are coming to hopefully find answers, Like the psycho soldiers team where its long time member Sie Kensou mysteriously lost his powers only for them to reappear in another person, the young child known as Bao, who also joins the team for this iteration of KOF.
As for Iori, Kyo’s disappearance haunted him and he decided to do his own investigation, which made him aware of the NESTS cartel as he saved Kyo’s girlfriend Yuki from being abducted by the evil organization. Iori would spend months hunting down NESTS bases looking for his arch enemy Kyo.
The King Of fighters tournament has begun, fighters from around the world were taking on each other, in the new 4 team format. Heidern, who was monitoring the suspicious tournament, confirmed from the satellite a mysterious image of many individuals looking very similar to Kyo Kusanagi all exiting suspicious crafts all over the world.
The KOF99 ran its course, and the new hero team, made of Benimaru, Shingo, K’ and Maxima has won the event. The winning team was then transported to an underground facility to meet the organizer of this year’s event. He reveals himself as Krizalid, and he surprisingly looked like K’.
To Benimaru and Shingo’s surprise, krizalid thanks K’ and Maxima for their hard work, revealing they were agents of NESTS all along.
The goal of this tournament was to gather fighters data, and use them to activate a number of clones that were created from Kyo’s DNA, after NESTS kidnapped him following the battle of Orochi. Krizalid also reveals that K’ is another clone made from Krizalid’s own DNA, created using the same technology as the Kyo clones. A reveal that shocked K’s to his core. To finalize the mission, Krizalid orders K’sand Maxima to collect what he calls the trigger data, a data that would grant the clones the ability to kill people, the killer instinct. K’ and maxima stood still.
Unknown to all of them, Kyo Kusanagi has recently woke up in one of the NESTS lab in the same underground facility. Surrounded by strange machinery, needles and lifeless bodies of people looking like him. Looking for answers, an exhausted Kyo started making his way towards the area where a massive battle is about to begin.
K’s and Maxima furious at the revelation of how controlled and manipulated their lives were, decide to ignore Krizalid’s order and join Benimaru and Shingo in an attempt to stop the clones activation. After a grand battle, K’ defeats Krizalid.
Upon his defeat, a mysterious voice, tells Krizalid that he had failed and is no longer needed. NESTS then remotely destroys the base, after retrieving the battle data, severely wounding Krizalid in the process. As the base starts collapsing, Kyo Kusanagi made his way to the battleground, and for few seconds, is reunited with Benimaru and Shingo. Kyo and K’s exchanged stares, both fighters knew they are connected to each other, as Kyo’s DNA was infused with K’s one to create the ultimate nests fighter.
Benimaru and Shingo safely made it outside the base, but Kyo was nowhere to be seen, as the hero decides to go his separate way to find who is behind the NESTS cartel and destroy them. The evil organization tried to dispose of K’ and Maxima but were unsuccessful. The ex nests fighters then decide it is time to take control of their lives to rebel and destroy the cartel themselves.
Making their way through the debris the Ikari warriors were looking for survivors inside the destroyed NESTS base. Whip find her way into the area where the last battle took place and found KRizalid, badly injured, he calls Whip his sister and asks her why she left the cartel years ago. Whip asked him whether he can recall his father’s face, to which Krizalid says he cannot, Whip tells Krizalid that he was K’s clone and not the opposite and that she is not his sister, moments later Krizalid presumabely dies.
Months would go by and the NESTS organization remains silent and in the shadows. Heidern, trying to figure out cartel’s next move was instructed by his friend and commander Ling to bring down K’ and Maxima as the two have been responsible for what was believed to be terrorist attacks. The truth was that these attacks were solely on secret NESTS bases as the two warriors are on a mission to bring the organization down.
A new KOf was announced, Ling wanted to learn more about K’s and Maxima so he instructed two of his secret agents Vanessa and Seth to form two teams and enter the tournament. First Vanessa would approach the famous lucha libre Ramon to join her and team up with the two fugitives K’ and Maxima.
As for Seth, his mission was to investigate the secretive Hizoku clan and its mysterious missing leader Ron. Seth finds Lin, another member of the Hizoku who also searches for his missing leader. The two along with his old friend Benimaru and Shingo form the new benimaru team.
As usual many teams return and the King Of Fighters 2000 has started with the new K’s team making it to the finals. But before they could find the truth about this year’s event, K’ was attacked by a mysterious young warrior. Kula Daimond. Kula was a product of NESTS and her codename was Anti K’. She was built as the opposite of K’ and can control ice. To prevent a similar scenario like K’s betrayal, Kula was always accompanied and monitored by an android, candy, as well as two of Nests top agents, foxy and Diana. Despite her strength, Kula could not defeat K’s and was forced to retreat.
Around the same time, Ling and his associates betray Heidern and revealed his true intention of powering up the space based weapon known as the Zero Canon. Ling then orders to have the KOF victors, the hero team, to be brought to him. It turned out that the real Ling was murdered a while ago and was replaced by the supposed Nests high ranking officer Zero. However, Zero’s real plan was to destroy NESTS using his space based weapon and create a new world order where he is the only ruler.
In order to power up the dangerous weapon, Zero used KOF to harness the energy of the fighters through the nests generators, which allowed him to operate the Zero cannon for the first time, and in an instant wipes out an entire city of the map. Zero’s next step is to power the generator once more using the energy from his next battle against the hero team, then use it to destroy nests and the world with it. The final battle between Zero and the new hero team has begun. K’ and his teammates were able to subdue zero, but before they could end the match, Zero attempts to use the cannon once more, yet the weapon malfunctioned as it turned out that NESTS agents Foxy and Diana have changed the control of the weapon and aimed it at Zero himself. Heidern, taking advantage of the moment, removes the weapon remote control from zero’s hand. Simultaneously, Kula along with candy went to orbit and destroyed the space weapon. The explosion sent the young NESTS operative falling through space, only to be protected by her android ally Candy, calling Kula her friend. Candy’s robot body does not survive the fall, but this act changes something in Kula forever.
As the zero canon debris fell down to earth, Vanessa and Ramon safely make it out of the base. While Whip, from the Ikari warriors, finds the dying Zero who reveals to her that she is also a product of nests, a clone herself. Furious at the reveal, whip shoots Zero, ending the life of the double agent nests operative.
As for K’, the ex nests fighter had a vision, a lost memory taken from him years ago of a little girl whom he calls his sister. After snapping out of the daydream, K’ and Maxima find themselves in front of Whip, K’ realizes that she looks exactly like a grown up version of the little girl he saw in his vision. As the satellite debris kept falling, K’s Maxima and Whip decide to join forces and take down NESTS together, both K and whip knowing deep down that they are related.
Almost a year would go by. The incident which saw an entire city wiped off the globe with the use of the Zero Cannon, was reported to be the result of an artificial satellite crashing down to earth. While many people were hoping for the tournament cancellation, somehow the event exponentially grew in popularity again, Which led to the KOF2001 to be announced, and with that came the unexpected announcement that an official team from nests is entering the tournament, marking the first time the shadowy organization is officially stepping into the light.
The tournament kept the 4 members team setting, but this time each team can decide how many fighters and how many strikers it can have per match.
The Trio of K’, Maxima and Whip will enter the latest tournament along with Lin.
As for the NESTS team, it was made of the cartel’s latest creation K9999, and angel, as well Foxy and Kula, the two agents responsible for destroying the zero cannon in the previous year. NESTS goal behind the new tournament is to gather all their enemies in one place and finally destroy them once and for all.
K9999 was the 9999th clone of kyo and was made to be the perfect weapon for the organization. Yet he was emotionally unstable and quickly to lose his temper. He also does not trust Foxy and Kula and prefers to work only with angel with whom he gets along.
Kula on the other hand has been questioning her existence ever since the incident that caused Candy’s destruction. She also feels some sort of bond to K’ that she cannot explain, even though she knew she was born to destroy him.
Another surprise return to the tournament is Kyo Kusanagi. The hero has been on a mission since he escaped form Nests grasp, to destroy the organization. He teams up with Benimaru, goro Daimon and shingo, to form the Japan team once again. As for Iori, he was approached by Seth to join his team with Vanessa and Ramon. While he first refused, he quickly changed his mind and accepted once he heard that Kyo is going to be at the event.
The tournament began. Fighters old and new duked it out on the international level. Many matches brought unforgettable moments. The new hero team of K’s, Maxima, whip and Lin won the competition, and were invited onboard of a blimp as part of the ceremony. However, the blimp was in fact a space ship in disguise that started ascending to space, taking the winners to the real base of the nests cartel.
Inside the spaceship, a similar yet different figure made its entrance. It’s Zero, the real zero, revealing the nests double agent that was defeated in the previous tournament was a mere clone. The new Zero challenges the winning team to a match. He was accompanied by his genetically engineered black pet lion glugal, Krizalid who was presumed dead at the end of KOF99, and Ron the Hizoku leader that Lin has been searching for. The hero team managed to defeat Zero and his teammates moments before the ship docked at the NESTS base in orbit. Zero urges the hero team to go forward before his ship gets destroyed killing Zero, Krizalid, Glugan and apparently Ron. At the same time, and with no reason, Foxy and Kula were attacked from behind by K9999 and Angel, in tandem with another massive reveal that is about to take place.
Back in the NEST main base , K’ and his teammates are now face to face with the leader of the cartel, a man named Nests, but not for long as it turns out Nests was murdered a long time ago by his son Ignis without the cartel knowing. Ignis was using a virtual image pretending that his father is still the one calling the shots. proclaiming himself a god Igniz shocked the winning team by revealing that he was the one behind their creation and memory manipulation. Before he challenges them to their final fight, Igniz decided to restore their memories as he wanted to fight them at full power.
A fierce battle took place unlike anything K’s and his teammates have ever seen. But with the combined might of the heroes Igniz was defeated. Unable to accept his loss he declares himself a devil and one that will destroy as many lives as possible. Igniz launches the space station hurling towards earth. Kula seeing the base falling, rushes down towards the descent zone. Luckily, and presumably thanks to Ron who was still alive, the station was diverted towards the water. The heroes survived the fall. Kula who jumped underwater was saved by K’. A new bond was formed between these two ex NESTS agents. Standing ashore, looking at the impact zone, K’, Maxima and Whip decide to join forces with a now reformed Kula and Foxy and a new saga for these warriors is about to begin, as nests is finally destroyed.
As for K9999 and angel, they decided to leave their nests lives behind, and would not be heard from for a very long time.
Around the same time, somewhere not far form the tournament venue, Kyo and Iori, are finally about to have the battle they both longed for, but who would win? The answer to that question still goes unanswered.
