The King of Fighters: The NESTS Saga Explained

gamerant.com:

The stories in The King of Fighters games go far beyond fighting tournaments. The Orochi saga involved power-hungry arms dealers, ancient evils, and warring clans. After that, the NESTS saga with bioengineered clones and a secret organization bent on world domination may seem passe, but it introduced a lot of fan-favorite characters to The King of Fighters. K', Maxima, Vanessa, Kula Diamond, and Whip all stem from the NESTS saga in King of Fighters ‘99, 2000, and 2001.

NESTS is a secret organization that deals with criminal activity, corrupt business deals, weapons dealing, and bioengineering. It learned about Orochi power during the previous King of Fighters tournaments, and kidnaps Kyo Kusanagi after the ‘97 tournament. They begin the Kusanagi Cloning Program, which turned children into human weapons based on Kyo’s DNA. A boy eventually known as K’ gains the power of pyrokinesis, and a clone of him named Krizalid had altered memories to believe he was the original. K's memories, including his sister in the program, were also erased or repressed.

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The King of Fighters tournament returned in 1999, but with teams of four instead of three — the fourth being a “striker” who could be called help for a limited amount of times. During the tournament, reports of Kyo showing up at multiple locations around the world leads to Heidern, the leader of the Ikari Warriors mercenary team, looking around. The Hero Team, of which K’ and fellow NESTS operative Maxima are a part, wins the tournament and is taken to an underground base to meet Krizalid, who reveals the NESTS organization used the tournament to collect combat data for a clone army.

K’ defeats Krizalid, and NESTS blows up its base. K’ and Maxima