-- ONE YEAR LATER --

It had been one year since the group of criminals had stolen the JACK data from the ruined laboratory of Dr Boskonovitch and the police had been trying to figure out why the explosion at the laboratory occurred. With no luck on their side, they decided to give up on searching and just accept that it was an accident. Many of the officers at the police station had their own opinions on the cause of the tragedy but there were a select few who sensed straight away that something must have happened. One of the higher rank officers had been talking to various people about the incident and it seemed it would get him into trouble.

One day when he arrived at the police station, he had a letter sent to him ordering him to go up to the Chief's office immediately. Thinking back to the last few days when he had been going around telling people about his opinion, he thought this might have been the reason why, so he obeyed his instruction and went up to see him. When he got there, he quickly realised his guess was correct. The Chief was sat in his chair staring at the officer and beckoned him to come closer. When the man moved forward, the Chief spoke.

"I've been hearing a lot about you."

"Uh… you have, sir?" the man replied.

"You seem to believe that the laboratory explosion case we abandoned was more than a simple accident, right?"

"Well, um… yes, sir."

The Chief stood up and walked around his desk, before stopping opposite the officer.

"We seem to think so, too. It seems highly unlikely that an explosion at that place would be an accident, especially when the data on the JACK robots is involved. After officers scanned the area, they reported that they hadn't been able to retrieve any evidence of the experiments. Not even any of the scientists' bodies. Everything… gone."

The officer looked surprised by the information he had just heard. Before he had time to think anymore on the subject, the Chief held out his hand. When he looked down, he saw what looked like some form of invite. The officer looked at the Chief, who asked him to take the invite.

"This… is an invitation to some form of fighting tournament. Why are you giving this to me?" the officer asked.

"Because I know you will do a good job," the Chief replied.

"But… why do I need to enter this?"

"I've had a small group of officers continue investigating this case and…"

"Do the rest know about this?"

"No. They haven't been informed. We don't want too many people involved in this."

It seemed almost hard to believe that despite initially calling off the investigation into this case, they continued searching for answers, behind the backs of everyone else at the station. The officer didn't know whether to feel relieved that the case was still ongoing, or anger at the fact that he had been kept hidden, like everybody else, from the truth. He looked down at the invitation he had been given to take a closer look.

THE KING OF IRON FIST TOURNAMENT WELCOMES 'ZERO' TO TAKE PART IN THE FIGHT TO WIN 1,000,000G.

"Uh, who's Zero?" he asked after noticing the name written on the paper.

"It is you," the Chief replied.

The officer stood still, confused with the whole situation. The Chief walked over to a locker in the corner of the room and turned to face the man again.

"Like I said, we've been investigating this case and we think that there's some kind of link between this tournament and the events at the laboratory of Dr Boskonovitch… We need a skilled fighter to go in undercover and find out anything that would be useful for the investigation. You will now be known as the mysterious fighter Zero."

The officer repeated the name in his head… Zero… Zero… ZERO? Why Zero?

The Chief pulled out clothes from the locker. It seemed to be a mass of black clothing… a black vest with black trousers and boots. The clothes were quite unusual as there were various belts attached to the legs of the trousers. The officer looked at the clothes, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the thought of having to wear this stuff, but what really got to him was when the Chief threw down a small mask on top of the pile.

"Chief? A mask? Seriously? Can't somebody else do this?"

"Yes, a mask… and no, you have to be the one to do this."

Why have I got to be the one doing this? Somebody else must be able to handle this I'm sure, the officer thought to himself and took the clothes into his arms. Before he could move, the Chief stopped him and pointed towards the door. Standing in the doorway was a man he had seen many a time fighting in the tournaments… With his long, black hair in a ponytail and his colourful clothes, the officer turned to see the man from the Hong Kong police.

"This is Lei Wulong," the Chief said.

"Hey, Zero," Lei said, smiling at the officer.

Lei walked into the room and stood next to the officer, and the three men discussed their plan of action. A few minutes later, the Chief had given the two officers a small device.

"This is a communication device. Put it in your ear and you will be able to contact each other if you need to. We will also be able to talk to you through these. Understand this, Zero?"

Hearing that name over and over again got the officer thinking about the reason he had to be called Zero. Maybe it was because they thought of him as nobody. Maybe it was because he was nothing. After all, the word nothing is similar to Zero, right? There was a bright side, however. He had been chosen to take this mission after all. He glanced at Lei, who was testing the device to see if it worked correctly. He decided that this was an experience he couldn't just walk away from, so he placed the device in his ear, looked at the Chief and said…

"Yes, sir. I understand."

And with that, the officer followed Lei out of the room… Zero was born.