LAST UPDATE: 6.17.17
GRAMMATICAL FIX
Radiant Falcon Fan Works #12
Neo Geo Chronicles Pro
Anyone remember Neo Geo Chronicles? That episodic fiction with that one scene with Iori on a boat or something like that? Well, astute readers can tell that was never finished. So here's a remake. A tenth anniversary fiction (I'm late by three months or so) based on the King of Fighters franchise mostly. No, this has nothing to do with the upcoming King of Fighters XIV, coming out this August exclusively for PS4... no kidding.
South Town, in the west coast of North America, is a haven for back alley brawls, bar-room rumbles, and most importantly, the King of Fighters 3-on-3 tournament. Starting in 1994 by Rugal Bernstein as a means to destroy his enemies and gain their power, the KOF tournaments have fluctuated in ownership from Rugal to Chizuru Kagura to the defunct criminal syndicate NESTS and then to the Rugal's children Adelheid and Rose. They were always, however, incredibly important to the fate of the world. When not hosting major fighting tournaments that (more or less) determined who would fight the villain of the year, South Town is often known as the mob boss Geese Howard's home base. People usually refer it to as the original South Town; those people are wrong, of course, because the original South Town was destroyed by a space laser in 2000. The current South Town was originally known as Second South before that cataclysmic event, and as such you'll still find people in town who refer to their hometown by its former name.
Even so, most of South Town's residents agree that the city would be nothing without the King of Fighters tournament. Those people would be right, of course, but it's also a melting pot for a variety of individuals with a great deal of spirit, ki, power, inner fire, strength, etc. The funny thing is, most of them come from east Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. One of them is a clone of a very famous Japanese fighter by the name of K Dash, spelled as K', the famous clone of Kyo Kusanagi. As much as he hated to admit it, he was famous, having been in nearly every major KOF tournament since 1999, and was responsible for NESTS' destruction. His clone, a young girl by the name of Kula Diamond, had been in KOF tournaments since 2000, and though they lived together for the most part, they couldn't be more different. K' was very stoic, more antisocial than anything, and used a man-made variant of the Kusanagi Flames. Kula, meanwhile, had more or less the mindset of a ten year old and wielded the powers of ice. They did share common ground in that neither of them liked Kyo much, though to be fair, that's because they're both clones of the guy and they didn't appreciate it one bit. In fact, the only thing holding them back from going full Iori Yagami (who they're also not a fan of, and who particularly doesn't like Kyo) is K's partner Maxima, a cyborg who keeps them in line most of the time.
The problem with being K' isn't so much his personality as it is the stigma of being associated with NESTS. But as he would like you to know, his problem is everyone else is a dick.
-=1 Stage: KD Team=-
-=K'/Maxima/Kula=-
K' and company lived in an apartment in what was evidently South Town's seedier corners. Generally, all of South Town is a seedy place, but the bad part of town is behind what was once Geese Tower, itself behind the railroad tracks. Now, one would assume that Geese Howard, who the tower was named for, would not approve of one of the so-called Hero teams living right behind his place. Given that if K' found out you called him a hero in front of him, he would be quick to deck you in the face and then deny such a connotation, though, we can assume that Geese probably would just back off. No one calls K' a hero. Hell, even his usual teammates don't do it. The only one to have done it was Igniz, a powerhungry maniac who led NESTS. And he got turned into a pile of crimson ash (not to be confused with Ash Crimson, the young kid who appeared in the following tournaments, took some powers, killed his ancestor and split into the void of time. Not that anyone would know about that.)
While they usually appear in KOF tournaments, K' and company make their living traveling the world, searching for interesting valuable artifacts related to the past. Usually, they're given the jobs by the Ikari Warriors, a military branch unofficially based in Honolulu who also have a number of KOF tournament appearances under their belt. K's older sister Seirah, also known as Whip, works for the Ikari Warriors, and they get their info from her. Today, however, nothing's on the itinerary, so K' usually just kicks back and relaxes. Or at least, that's what he usually does. Maxima's recharging and Kula's probably eating ice cream (an unintended side-effect of her cloned DNA and K' beating the assassin out of her in 2001), so he's free to do what he wants.
As soon as K' thought "man, you know what? I've got nothing better to do, I'll take a nap or something, take my mind off of things." the door to the apartment blew up in a orange flame. Evidently there was no rest for K', wielder of the red flames. "What do you want?" he sharply growled to the intruder. "I hope you'll pay for that door you just scorched."
There was no one at the door. If someone was here, they left a stray fiery projectile. The only one to use the orange flame was Kyo, whom as previously stated, he didn't like. But even he wouldn't intentionally cause arson. K' knew of a few clones in the past, but they all used different color flames, as if they knew orange was already taken, and almost all of them came from NESTS (with KUSANAGI, a Yata Mirror clone, having more white fire than anything). Only thing is, all Kyo clones, with the notable exceptions of himself and Kula, deactivated with Igniz's death. There was one running around using Kyo's moves from '96-onward but no one knew where he came from or where he went after KOF #13, meaning that not all clones were inactive... stuff like that made his head hurt. This is exactly why he needed to relax. Kula told him he stressed out too much. "Keep a cool head, she said. It'll make you less grumpy, she said." K' muttered. "It's not like someone blew up our door or anything."
he laid back on the couch. If there's another door being incinerated, it'll probably be at someone else's home, he assumed. Then the same orange flame streaked past where his door used to be. "Oh for the love of..." K' heard a young girl complain. That young girl, Kula Diamond, evidently just woke up to the sound of fire. "Who's burning things this early in the morning?"
"Kula, do you know of any orange flame users?"
"Besides Kyo? No... why?"
"Because the door to our apartment was scorched by orange flame. I'm wondering if Kyo was involved."
"Isn't Kyo in Japan?"
Kula did bring up a good point. Kyo Kusanagi was in fact a Japanese native, and spent most of his time in that country. When he did travel to other countries, it was either for the KOF tournament or visiting friends in China. Long story short, whoever incinerated their door wasn't the famous Japan Team member. It had to have been someone else. But who else was there? The Kyo clones weren't things anymore, KUSANAGI used white fire, and K' used red. Either it was a figment of his imagination, or it was a flamethrower sent to torch K's apartment. If it was a flamethrower, it was probably a strike team. "Look, whatever's causing this is insulting my brain just thinking about it." K' said casually.
"Insulting your brain? You know better, Dash."
That was the unmistakable sound of a villain. Someone with enough power to level houses and bust tanks. In other words, Colonel Ralf Jones of the Ikari Warriors, bearing a envelope marked "For KD Team Only". "We've got an assignment for you."
"Really, Jones? Did you have to make us all paranoid?"
"Yeah, it's a new tactic called 'psychological warfare'. You should try it sometime."
Kula, eagle eyed as ever, asked "What's that in your hand?" Ralf responded with a hearty "Oh this? This is your assignment." K' complained, "I thought we didn't have an assignment today. What gives, Colonel?"
"Commander Heidern says you do. We think a NESTS remnant is trying to cause trouble in Geese Plaza."
"And you want us to check it out?"
"Yeah. It may be just be Zhe again, but we've got a hunch it's someone else."
Ralf was referring to 'Nameless' Zhe Prime, another Kyo clone (number #9,998 to be exact), only he was developed using the remaining data from K' and Kula. He used black flames, compared to K's red flames and Kula's ice powers. The guy was extremely bitter, more so than K'. That was a feat, he had to admit. His last KOF tournament was in Dream Match 4, where he fought by himself. He only resurfaced just recently, which begged the question: where did he go?
-=99=-
About six minutes later, K', Kula and Maxima were walking around Geese Plaza, at the center of which used to be Geese Tower, home of the strongest crime boss in all of South Town. Originally built in 1987 at the original South Town, destroyed in 2000 during the Zero Hour Incident (the official name for the "we almost died during the 2000 space laser crisis in space" day), and repurposed in 2013 as a local landmark, Geese Plaza is now the home of Geese's son Rock, who despite renouncing his relation to the crime lord, was named in his will as the sole inheritor of his fortune. Rock didn't want to take the money and power, but an encouragement from his surrogate father Terry Bogard convinced him otherwise. Terry's exact words were "dude, the world needs a Howard."
Maxima had recalled the ensuing press conference to his partners. "This is very fascinating stuff, K'.", he had said upon the playback's conclusion. What with Maxima being a cyborg, he had a lot of very handy tools at his disposal. "The kid took the place even if he didn't want it. So what?" K' scoffed. "So that sets a precedent. If Rock Howard could successfully turn the Howard Syndicate into a legitimate business, then we'd see a lot less crime around town."
"That would be nice. I don't want to end up in someone's trunk. Not after the last time." Kula alluded to. K' commented "You've liked it before."
"It took weeks to wash the gasoline out of my clothes. Weeks!"
"Now imagine something sparked."
Kula was shocked. "Dashy! How could you say such a thing?"
K' looked confused. "I didn't say anything, Kula. I know you hate fire, despite you having lived with me -a fire user - for the better part of three years.", he said matter-of-factly. Kula tilted her head to one side and said "It's been three years already?"
"Irrelevant."
"I forgot to get Aunt Foxy a housewarming gift!"
"Also irrelevant."
"I mean, she said she was buying a house in England with her husband; so it's no wonder she hasn't been around lately."
"Stay on track, Kula."
"But I really do need to- wait... did you see that?"
K' looked around. First to the left, then to the right. "I don't see anything."
"Take off your sunglasses, silly, it's like 5:30 in the morning and the sun hasn't come up yet!"
I should mention that the tanned, white haired clone always wore sunglasses whenever he went out, or hell, even in KOF tournaments. The frames were nearly unbreakable. But they were still sunglasses; best in bright days. As Kula noticed, it was 5:30 AM. K' saw that his 'cousin' had a point, and so did like he was told for once. "I still don't see anything." he concluded. "Maxima, do you see anything?"
There was no answer. The cyborg's usually blue eyes were completely white. "alright, you hunkajunk, what's the matter?"
"I don't know, man." Maxima responded. Only thing was that his response could be described as garbled. "My sensors are on the fritz. Could be some electrical interference."
"Impossible. Nikaido isn't due back in the country for another month."
"What about that Shermie lady?" Kula asked. "Shermie's in France, so I doubt it was her." K' responded. "No, my guess is a solar flare. You know how those things are with machines."
"No, It can't be that. I pay attention to the news, you know. They never said anything about a solar flare. What about a time traveler?"
"I don't know what story you read, but those don't exist in real life."
Maxima activated what was left of his sensors. "guys?"
"What about an electromagnet?"
"Do you know how many times Maxima's been hit with electromagnets without a scratch? Hundreds."
"Children!"
Both clones sprung to attention. "There's something here, something I think the Ikari Warriors might want to know about."
At Maxima's feet was a strange object. "Know what it is, partner?"
"My sensors aren't functioning properly, but if I had to hazard a guess..."
What it was was shaped very much like an obelisk, but it looked like it could fit in the palm of Maxima's hand. Almost as if it was a crystal. "Ooooh! Oooh! It's an alien object, isn't it?" Kula interjected. Maxima said, "We'd better report this to the Colonel. Maybe he'd know."
"Wha, and forget about the reason we came here?"
K' looked at Geese Plaza. He then looked in the general direction of his house. "Yeah, I'm sure Rock won't miss a few windows."
-=first stage completion=-
THE NEXT CHALLENGE
Shen Woo, Shanghai's very own God of War. Duo Lon, shadow warrior of the Nepal mountains. Nakoruru, nature priestess of ancient Japan? Something isn't quite right here. Jikai, stage 2 of Neo Geo Chronicles Pro:"Shanghai Team: Shen/Duo Lon/Nakoruru"
