The King of Fighters 2001

Story

The official history of Eolith is as follows: "In King of Fighters 2000, an entire city was wiped off the face of the earth by the use of the Zero Cannon satellite weapon. This incident was reported as a result of the crash of an artificial satellite to Earth and graced the front pages of various newspapers in countries all over the world. A legion of people demanded the end of the KOF tournament, which always invites some accidents, but ironically, this fighting tournament with a bad history regained considerable popularity. The interest in the tournament was as great as in the 97 competition, even surpassed it. But in this tournament, held on the international stage, an amazing fact came to light. A team from NESTS signed up for the tournament! What are the real goals of the sponsor of the event? There is no guarantee that this tournament will not repeat the tragedy.... The third title of King of Fighters: The NESTS Chronicles. Finally, this tournament will end it all!" The NESTS Cartel decides to host the 2001 KOF Tournament to use it as a method to eliminate their enemies and bring their own team up in the ranks. In the finals of the tournament, Hero Team boards a special airship that soon turns out to be a spaceship. There they meet Original Zero, whose clone decimated the cartel's secrecy last year with his plan. He congratulates them on reaching the finale and explains that they are on their way to the real headquarters of NESTS. He decides to entertain his passengers with a game and is assisted by his black lion Glugan, Ron and Krizalid. Despite the overwhelming force of his group, he is defeated just before the ship docks with the NESTS satellite. He remains aboard the exploding ship and urges the hero team to continue. Once inside the NESTS satellite, they meet the leader of the NESTS, Nests. He wishes his renegade agents to return to the organization and is killed shortly after by Igniz, who claims the cartel for his own. Igniz also reveals that K', Kula, Krizalid, K9999 and Whip are guinea pigs/creations created for his personal entertainment. Kula, who was separated from the rest of her team and was present at the time, also learns that she is an artificial life form. He declares himself a god and attacks the team as his first act of "divine retribution" and defeats them. As he tries to kill K', other fighters intervene in the battle, including all the team leaders, Kyo and Iori. When he is defeated, he announces that he is a fallen god and calls himself a "demon" instead. He hurls the satellite through the Earth's atmosphere to destroy his competition. Fortunately, the satellite crashes into the sea and the fighters on board were somehow saved from the explosion, presumably thanks to Ron. K' saves Kula from drowning; out of gratitude, she and her protector Diana team up with K' and Co. K9999 and Angel are presumably still alive, though their exact whereabouts are unknown. They also stab Foxy, although it is later revealed that her apparent death on screen was false.