Disclaimer: All KOF and KOF-related things are property of SNKPlaymore. I only own the rights to the OC's that are present in this story.

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KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Chapter 11: Dear Fallen Angel…

---

Irena, K' and the others stood there as the platform continued its voyage to who-knows-where. After descending for a few minutes, it had started moving straight ahead through a dark tunnel, which unlike the others, didn't have much in the way of illumination.

"Maxima, can you tell how far down this girl has taken us?" K' groaned.

"I can't give you an exact estimate, but we're about 80 feet underground." The massive man behind him answered.

"What kind of person would make a lair that far down?" Benimaru exclaimed. "If this place collapses, and it probably will, how will we get out?"

"That shouldn't be an issue. There are emergency exits all over the area for quick use in the event someone tries to blow this place up." Irena sat on the edge of the platform while she was talking.

"Why would someone want to blow us up?"

"Oh, various reasons…" She trailed off a bit. "I recommend you get ready, because we're almost here."

In minutes, the platform came to a rather abrupt halt in front of a steel door.

"70599…" K' read the numbers that were imprinted on the door. "What the hell is this?"

"It's our destination, of course. Site vector 70599." Irena said. A few seconds later, the door slowly started to rise. "Well, this is what you've been waiting for…"

Waiting behind the door was a room seemingly made of nothing but machinery. The floor consisted of a design which looked more like a circuit board than a pattern, and it lit up every so often with red lights that seemed to move across the floor. In fact, there were red lights almost all over the room, flashing and blinking along with the various devices. Standing in the middle of the room was Krizalid himself, looking very pleased with what he saw.

"Krizalid, I brought the winning team over here to start the final part of our plan." Irena announced as she and the rest of the group got off the platform.

The mysterious sponsor nodded in approval. "Good job, Irena."

"Ugh…this is the person who is running this tournament?" Benimaru said to himself. "What kind of person would fight in such a terrible outfit?"

"Welcome. As you know, I am the sponsor of this contest. Obviously, as the winners of the tournament, you have gained the right to fight me." The glow of the room gave Krizalid's form an evil hue.

Before either Shingo or Benimaru was able to speak up and ask if Krizalid had any fighting ability (because he sure didn't look like he did), K' stepped up. "So you're our final opponent…If that's the case, why don't you stop with all this courtesy bullshit and show me what you got."

"Damn it, K'!" Irena scolded. "Shut the hell up!"

"No, it's alright." Krizalid assured. "It's best that we get this over with as soon as possible." The sole female in the room just sighed and moved to the side as he continued, "Now then, let the match begin."

"What? Just like that?" Shingo said in a panicked tone.

"I guess. Sorry Shingo, but it looks like we can't say no to this fight." Benimaru shook his head.

"Don't you two get your panties in a bunch. This will be over in a matter of minutes." K' got into his stance.

Krizalid just laughed.

---

A good ways from Site 70599, the SSC were being forced into a confrontation with the two Kyos that had mysteriously appeared. Once again, it seemed that they needed to come up with some kind of plan. Luckily, Raven managed to conjure up one really quick.

"Krysten and I will take one of these guys, and you two can take the other." He quickly said.

"Wait; wouldn't it be a better idea just to gang up on them all at once?" Krysten said.

"Just trust me on this."

And with that, the SSC charged towards the Kyo clones with no real solid strategy in mind. Raven and Krysten took on one clone, while Zyon and Xion fought the other.

Things didn't seem to be going the way that they expected, however. The Kyos were seemingly just as tough as the real one, and teaming up on one of them didn't seem to be doing anything at all.

"Hya!" Raven threw a high kick. Kyo-1 managed to duck, and Raven's foot nearly hit his brother right in the face. Krysten stumbled back, making himself open for a quick Oboroguruma from the clone. Raven quickly sent an elbow to the clone's back, making him stumble a bit. He turned around for a quick roundhouse that was blocked by Raven, but while he recovered, Krysten had snuck up behind him and wrapped his chain around the clone's neck.

"Look's like we have ourselves a new punching bag, bro." Raven grinned before laying some heavy shots on to the clone. Kyo-1 lifted his feet and kicked Raven away before grabbing Krysten by the arm and throwing him right into his brother.

Zyon and Xion was having slightly better luck, primarily because the latter had landed a kick to Kyo-2's head that was throwing off his equilibrium, causing him to have difficulty maintaining a steady offense.

"Hold still!" Kyo-2 shouted as Zyon and Xion continued to dodge his attacks. "Kurae!"

Zyon just missed the Dokugami that was thrown by Kyo-2, but when he dodged, he noticed something strange. Whereas most of the time there was a burst of flame that accompanied the punch, all Kyo-2 could muster was a few sparks.

"No flames? Now that's really weird…." Zyon thought, but then he got an idea…. "Hold on for a second!" He said suddenly.

"Huh…what? What's going on?" Kyo-2 was confused.

"You can't make flames, can you?" Zyon stated plainly.

"What? Have you lost your mind? I'm Kyo Kusanagi! Of course I can make flames!"

"Well, I haven't seen any since we started fighting, so you obviously can't. All I'm seeing are sparks."

"Why you…" Kyo-2 started to seethe.

"Come to think about it," Xion added, "I don't remember that other Kyo using any flame attacks either."

"Hey!" Kyo-1 turned to them, causing him to lose focus and get himself hit with a Rekkou, courtesy of Raven.

"You can't do it, can you?" Zyon continued to test the clone's nerves, "Someone modeled after the great Kyo Kusanagi can't even make flames! How pathetic…"

"SHUT UP!" Kyo-2 roared, causing the other clone and the Kirishima's to stop fighting. "You wanna see some fire? I'll show you fire!"

"Zyon, what the hell are you doing?" Xion thought to himself. "You're going to get us killed!"

Kyo-2 attempted to summon the flames, but he looked like he was straining to do so. Sweat was forming on his forehead as the first flickers of actual flame started to appear.

Zyon let out a long yawn. "That's it? All you can make is a few flickers of flames after all of that effort?" He pointed at the few specks of flame that was on the clone's hand. "For someone who's supposed to be a Kusanagi, you sure do suck at it."

None of the other members of the SSC bothered to mention that Zyon couldn't make flames at will, either.

His words dug at the clone's psyche, and he pushed harder to get the flames to appear in his hand. Focusing every bit of his energy, a small flame formed in the palm of his gloved hand.

"Ha! You see? Revel before the flames of the Kusanagi!" Kyo-2 gloated, bringing his hand forward so Zyon could see. It was a flame all right, but it was a small one.

"That's good, but…" Zyon put one of his gloves on, before placing his hand over the flame, "It's kinda small, isn't it? Not very threatening if you ask me. Now this…" The heat of the fire was just enough to ignite his own blue flames, but unlike the clone, it was larger, nearly engulfing his whole hand. "…That is what I was expecting."

All Zyon got was a growl from Kyo-2 as he attempted to make the flame bigger. But as it grew, the clone looked more and more strained as he put more emphasis into trying to outdo the blond teen. Finally, it started to grow in size, soon engulfing his hand as well.

"Is that enough for you, smart guy?" He panted, tired from putting forth all that effort.

"You managed to make them appear in both hands at the same time; that's impressive." Zyon replied, pointing to the fact that Kyo-2's other hand was on fire as well.

"What?" Kyo-2 never intended for that to happen. He tried to put them out, but nothing happened. He waved his hand around a bit, but all that managed to do was make it even worse. Now it was to the point that both of his lower arms were completely ablaze. "I…I can't make it stop!"

"Of course you can't. You're not the real Kyo Kusanagi, stupid."

"Sh-shut up….I'm….better than him…" Kyo-2 spat, though that was far from the case. Whoever made him neglected to compensate for the amount of training needed to use the power; without that, anyone else would either be unable to wield any flames whatsoever or, in the unfortunate case of the clone, they would be overcome by them.

With a loud wail, Kyo-2's body suddenly burst into flames. His body started to run around in a last ditch effort to get them to die out, but they were too powerful to control anymore, and he eventually fell to the ground while the flames proceeded to burn him to death.

Everyone else was completely silent for a moment while their minds tried to comprehend what happened.

"Was this the plan, Zyon?" Xion couldn't help but question his friend, "To bait him into losing control of his own powers?"

"Ehhhh, not really. I was just intending on getting him too riled up to focus and make him easier to beat. The fact that he ended up doing an impression of the Human Torch is just a nice little bonus for us."

"What happened, did his circuits overload or something?" Krysten stared at the still flaming body.

"Judging by the smell of burning flesh that's filling the room, I don't think that's a robot." Zyon went towards the burning corpse and used the heat to ignite his own flames a bit more. He turned to Kyo-1, "What are you supposed to be?"

"That's my secret and mine alone." Kyo-1 refused to be cordial to the person who caused his partner to die. "If you want the truth, you'll need to beat it out of me…"

"And considering that it's four-on-one now, I guess a beating is what you're about to receive." Raven cracked his knuckles. "We'll see how big of a smartass you are after we put you in a coma."

"Pfft. I'm Kyo Kusanagi." Kyo-1 refused to let his ego get deflated. "I can beat all of you with my hand behind my…."

"Kyoruga!"

The dragon-head projectile hit him right in the small of the back, cutting his boasting short, and leaving him open to a kick from Krysten that snapped his head back in a way that the human body is not supposed to experience.

"Kirien'eki…" Raven's projectile was full strength and knocked what little wind the clone had left.

"Die…" Finally, Zyon, still in flame mode, gave Kyo-1 four hard series of punches, the last one letting off a small explosion of fire that KO'ed him instantly.

"Whoa…did we just do a team-up technique?" Raven was surprised on how fluidly the whole scene was.

"Uh…yeah, I think we did." Zyon replied before noticing the clone's hand was ablaze even though he was unconscious. "Uh-oh. Looks like he's about to flame up like the other one."

"We've wasted enough time. We need to find Irena." Raven announced, "The tunnels that those…things came out of might lead us to her."

---

"Hmph. You're the worst opponent I've ever faced."

K' looked down on Krizalid who was kneeling on the ground. Their fight was a bit long, but K' was able to get the upper hand and come out on top.

"So was this some kind of joke? Or are you some kind of minion for the real mastermind behind this thing?" K' said smugly as he crossed his arms.

"Of course not. This is only the beginning." He suddenly asked. "Irena, is it done yet?"

"Yes, sir. The battle data has been completely downloaded into your system." Irena checked the information that showed in her phone. "There's nothing abnormal as far as I can tell. You are now able to continue with the plan"

"Battle data? Downloads? What in the hell?" Benimaru groaned. "Now I'm fighting computer nerds now? This really blows."

"I think now is the time to explain what's going on." Krizalid stood to his full height. "My name is Krizalid, my associate, Irena Toryu and I, have been using your battle data in order to activate our brand-new weapons."

K' and his team looked at him with looks of confusion on their faces.

"What's going on?" Maxima questioned. "I thought this was just a test of our abilities."

"And it was. But it was also a ruse to gather up data on some of the strongest fighters in the world and see who was worthy enough to participate in our plan. And judging by our current situation, I would say I did a pretty damn good job of doing both."

"So what are you going to do with us?" Shingo interjected, trying not to sound nervous.

"Well, if you give me the opportunity, I shall enlighten you." A monitor with a map of the world suddenly appeared behind him. "During our last battle, my special suit downloaded the data into the machines which surround you currently. They also downloaded data from the match you had earlier, so it has more than enough for us to use."

"Use for what?"

"To go to our new weapons, as I said before. But it's not the kind that you're thinking of…" The screen behind him suddenly went to a camera image inside one of the many helicopters that was stationed all around the world. Sitting in rows on either side of the room were men wearing dark combat gear. Men that looked almost identical to Kyo Kusanagi.

If it wasn't for the loud machinery humming around them, one would have probably heard the sound of the jaws of Shingo and Benimaru hit the floor.

Krizalid smirked. "I take it that you're impressed, right?"

---

Meanwhile, Whip was trying to find her way around the underground base. 'Trying' being the key word. Even though she knew how to get in the tunnels, she didn't really have the greatest grasp of how to actually get to Point 70599. Every tunnel looked almost exactly like the last one, and that led to her back tracking constantly, running (literally) into dead ends, and seemingly passing by the same place over and over and over….

"I hate this place…" She growled as she made her way around a corner for the twenty-third time. "The very moment I see that bastard I'm going to blow his miserable head off."

At that moment, Whip started to notice a faint smell in the air.

"It smells like smoke…" She thought. "There must be a fire of some sort. Wait…Fire? That could only mean one thing!"

She rushed towards the direction of the smell, it getting stronger and stronger by the second. Whip couldn't help but wonder if Zyon had something to do with it…

When she finally found the source of the odor, all she was greeted with was the sight of two burnt corpses, one smoldering, the other was still on fire. She let out a small yelp before quickly covering her mouth, embarrassed for being so easily scared.

After regaining her composure, Whip took a look at the body that wasn't currently burning like a dry bush. She nudged it a bit with the toe of her boot, but part of it crumbled to ashes upon contact. The only things she could make out were a sun emblem and a burnt leather glove. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on.

"So that's the thing he's been doing for the past year and a half…" She instantly thought, "If that's the case, I need to hurry up and find those guys."

Part of her wanted to radio Leona to report her findings, but at this depth, the signal would be too weak. Whip had no other choice but to continue to try and locate them. She didn't

---

"They all look like Kusanagi-san…" Shingo was the first one to regain his voices after seeing the image, "But…but how?"

"Isn't it obvious? They're robots!" K' causally stated.

"They're not robots, K'. They're clones." Krizalid interrupted.

Benimaru looked doubtful. "Clones? Is that even possible?"

"It is with our technology. We have the power to accomplish things that most scientists and companies can only dream of."

"Even so, is how did you get his DNA?"

"Well, that part is more complicated. Most of the data we gathered is based on Kyo's participation in '97 tournament that Kagura woman sponsored two years ago, right up till that 'incident' at the finals where he supposedly 'disappeared'. The information we got from that would have been more than enough to work with, but soon after that, we happened to come across the unconscious form of your friend. Needless to say, an opportunity arose for us."

"So you are the ones who have Kyo?" Benimaru voice took a threatening tone. "What have you done with him?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. Kyo escaped from us a while ago, and destroyed one of our bases in the process. But by then we had already started work on the clones." The monitor changed back to the world map, parts of it marked with red dots. "You see those dots on the screen? Each one represents a unit of clones placed in a major city. We have them scattered all over the world, waiting for our signal."

"Signal? What are they supposed to be doing?"

"They will help us seize those cities, overpowering any defenses and allowing our organization to take over with relative ease."

"Feh. If that was all you needed, then what was the point of this whole tournament?" K' asked. "Besides making me look good, that is."

"Heh heh heh…it was a lure, just like all of the other tournaments were. But more importantly it was a way to gather some of the best fighters in the world to determine who was strong enough to help us accomplish our goals. Because we knew that Benimaru was looking for two more fighters to team with him, we decided to place him with you two. I knew that you were going to go far, but you exceeded even my expectations. Then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from my own clone."

For the first time in the whole tournament, K' looked genuinely shocked. "WHAT?!?"

"What? You don't think so? Well now, tell me this….do you remember anything about your past? Your parents? Your friends? Your childhood? Anything?" The frustrated expression on the face of K' was all the response Krizalid needed. "You can't do, can you?"

"Shut up…." He growled.

"I thought so. You're a clone, just like all of the others. The only difference is that you're cloned from me, rather than Kyo Kusanagi. It's a rather tough pill to swallow, isn't it?"

"I said SHUT UP!" K' roared. It was enough to silence everyone else.

Irena looked up, and K''s eyes instantly locked on hers. She could tell that he wasn't very happy.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" He accused.

"Well……..yeah, I kinda did." Irena could do nothing but smile nervously and scratch the back of her head. "I'm sorry, K', but I couldn't…"

The next thing she knew, there was a ball of fire heading straight at her. She quickly jumped out of the way, leaving it to singe part of her shirt. "Son of a….!"

"Leave Irena out of this K'." Krizalid warned. "She was ordered not to reveal it to you till the time's right, so there's no reason to blame her."

K' just crossed his arms and turned his attention back to Krizalid. Irena muttered profanities under her breath while she went over the damage to her clothes.

"K' and Maxima, You two have done well, and now you have one last order." Krizalid said, "I need you and the others to help create the trigger data."

"Trigger Data?" Everyone else repeated.

"The 'Killer Instinct', as some may put it. That's the thing that will activate the clones, but it's important for another reason. The Kyo clones are perfect replications of the original. Their attacks, their mannerisms, even their speech is exactly like Kyo Kusanagi. The problem comes with the actual flames itself. It takes a lot of skill and effort to use and control those flames, and because the clones lack the rigorous training needed to wield them properly, most of them can't even make a single spark."

"So in other words, they all fight like Shingo?" Benimaru snickered.

"Benimaru-san, that was mean…"

"As I was saying…It is possible for the clones to produce the fire with time and effort, but even then, they lack the ability to control them, and eventually all of them ended up being burned alive with their own flames. Some of them even exploded because of it. Trigger data will enhance their bodies to which they will be able to use them with relative ease. And you're going to help us do that?"

"What makes you think I'm going to do that?"

"What, besides the face that I'm your boss?" Krizalid teased. "You can benefit from it too. We all know that you can wield the flames without killing yourself, but you can barely control them without that special glove. If you help me, I assure you that you'll never need that thing again..."

"SCREW YOU!" K' shouted. "I don't need you or anyone else's help. I do things on my own!"

There was a long pause before Krizalid sighed. "If that's what you're going to do…I guess I have to create that data myself. Irena, please keep watch outside just incase we have 'visitors'."

"Yes sir…" Irena stepped out of view.

Krizalid snapped his fingers, and the monitor turned off. The room slowly started to brighten as the machines that were active shut down and started to retract into the ground. What was revealed was a massive area filled with even bigger machines. Pipes and circuitry practically made up the walls, and there was a large space on the floor that was pulsing with light.

Slowly, something started to rise from the space. It was a large machine, with what seemed to be a round device in the middle of it, glowing with energy. It sat there for a few moments, before it abruptly shot out a beam of energy into the ceiling. The shockwave nearly knocked the fighters of their feet, but Krizalid stood firm.

"A little word of warning for you all…" He said casually. "I wouldn't get too confident because of what you did a few minutes ago. As I said, I only wanted battle data, so now, you'll be facing the 'real' me. And with that…."

The large coat that adorned him suddenly burst into flames, disintegrating and leaving him in a bodysuit; the one that he used to download the battle data…

"Burn this image into your mind…." Krizalid gave an evil smile, "….and die…"

---

By time Krizalid had said those ominous words, Irena was back on the grated platform that took her down here. It was far enough so she didn't really know what was going on. She had to keep watch in case that certain 'someone' decided to butt in unexpectedly. It didn't take long before she heard footsteps, but the pattern was too inconsistent to be made by only one person.

"Oh goody. Sounds like Little Miss Whippy brought her friends with her." She droned, upset that she wouldn't get to sit and relax for a bit. Irena got up and stretched for a bit. "I think I can handle this on my own."

Since there was only one path that led to this point besides going down the elevator, she knew where they would be coming from. Reaching into her skirt pocket, she took out a small sphere. Irena tossed it down the path, and with a loud pop, smoke started to seep out, quickly covering the room. In an instant, she was running into the smoke in an attempt to get whoever was there while they were blind and coughing.

"YAAAAAH!" With an amazing speed that one would not have expected of her upon first sight, Irena threw a high-arcing kick. It hit something, but by the way the impact felt she knew that it had been blocked.

"Maybe I shouldn't have made that noise…" Irena ducked what seemed to be a punch (she was basically going by instinct), before throwing several of her own. Some hit, some were blocked, some just plain missed. She was fighting blind because of the smoke, and it proved to be less successful than she thought, but it was necessary to prevent her supposed 'target' from effectively using her weapons.

Delivering another high kick, she was surprised when someone caught it, and the next thing she knew, she had her legs tripped from under her and she fell to the ground. The smoke was clearing and Irena was finally getting a clearer view of the people she was fighting. She could almost see the features of the person right in front of her: Dirty blond hair, the strip of cloth that hung around his neck, the scar that ran down his eye…….wait a minute…..

"Raven?" Irena said blankly as the smoke cleared and the face of the supposed leader of the SSC finally came to full view.

"I-Irena?" By the expression on her face, he was just as surprised as she was. "That was you?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry…" She responded, thankful that she chose a medium length skirt, otherwise things would have became uncomfortable. She got up and noticed that the entire team was standing right in front of her."Wait….what the hell are you guys still doing here?"

"You know, that's a very good question…." Xion said to himself. Krysten just looked at Zyon and Raven, since it was their idea in the first place.

Finally, Raven started to speak, "We just wanted to know why you had to leave so abruptly. We just woke up and all that was left was a note." He turned a little red in the face. "We all wanted to see you one last time, so we kinda followed you all the way here."

Irena couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness after hearing that. "You guys….I really appreciate this, but do you know how much trouble you'll be in if you stay here?"

"Judging by those robots we met a few moments ago, that would probably be a yes." Zyon answered, and he got a look of confusion in response.

"Robots? We don't have any…" Irena suddenly realized what he was referring to. "Oh shit. You ran into the two clones that we sent out?"

"Clones?!?" Everyone said at once.

Irena nodded; she always knew that there was a chance that she would have to explain things to them. The dumbfounded looks on the SSC faces wasn't making it easy, however.

"I see that my intuition was right, something devious is going on here." Zyon finally regained his wits about him. "No wonder that you were so secretive…"

Sighing, Irena put covered her face with her hands. "What happened to the clones, guys?"

"They…uh…kinda burned themselves to death…" Krysten said quietly.

Irena let out another loud sigh. "Damn it. We told them that they were not to concern themselves with trying to make flames, but that's what happens when you use Kyo Kusanagi as a base…" She threw her arms down. "So I guess you want to stop me."

"We're not here to stop you, we just want to know what's going on." Raven said with little apprehension as he could.

Irena opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. "I can't tell you…" She said softly.

"Irena…"

"No! This is something that I can't get you involved in." Irena's tone became more serious, "Just leave. I will not allow you to get hurt just because you want to 'help' me." She turned away from them.

"Irena, we're not going to persecute you for your actions. Just tell us what's going on."

Irena stood there for a moment, before turning her head towards them yet again. "I'm going to tell you this because you are my friends. Eventually this will come out, and I prefer that you hear it from me."

She took a deep breath. "Basically the condensed version of the story is that my boss, no, this organization for that matter, has placed clones of Kyo Kusanagi all over the world. Once he gets all the 'data' he needs, they are going to start rampaging and taking those places over by force. It's a basic world domination thing."

There was a few moments of silence before Zyon finally spoke up. "Would any of those clones be anywhere near Japan?"

"Yes, but unfortunately, I don't know what's going to happen once they all activate. They could make it quick or they could do a whole lot of mindless damage."

"If that's the case, then it looks like we're going to have to stop them."

"WHAT?! Have you lost your minds?"

"Irena, we don't usually concern ourselves with stuff like this, but we have friends and family back home that we need to protect." Raven stated.

"Are you nuts? My boss will kill you! You have to get out of here, like RIGHT NOW!" Irena shouted, but no one was willing to budge.

"Don't worry, all we have to do is catch this 'boss' of yours off-guard and he'll be defeated in no time." Zyon smiled and reassured, but Irena didn't seem to share his confidence.

"I'm not letting you go through with this." She spread her arms in a 'Thou shall not pass' position. "I will fight you if I have to."

"Actually, you aren't." a voice behind her said. Just as she realized Zyon was gone, she felt a small pressure on her neck, and then everything went to black. Zyon caught her as she fell.

"Zyon, what the hell did you do?!" Raven shouted as he quickly scooped her up in his arms.

"Stop panicking. It's just a basic knockout move I learned. It only does that, nothing more." Zyon voice slightly gave away the concern he had for his sister's safety. "Now then, shall we get going?"

With that, the SSC hesitantly continued their journey to what would hopefully be their last encounter. This time, however, there was no point in trying to come up with a plan.

---

"Typhon Rage!"

K' was thrown into the wall by the sudden force generated from Krizalid's attack. Slumping to the ground, he absentmindedly took note of everyone else's condition, which to put it mildly, wasn't very good.

Whereas Krizalid was somewhat weak in the first battle, he was absolutely unstoppable in the second one. He seemed to push away everyone's attacks with ease, preventing anyone from easily getting close to him. And even if they managed to do that, it took only a moment for Krizalid to push them back.

"What's wrong, clone?" He taunted, "Where's that intensity that I saw a few moments ago?" Krizalid knew that the revelation that K' was his clone was messing up his focus, which only made him easier to beat. Seeing him struggling to even land more than one hit on him was amusing. Despite that, however, he still hadn't gained enough data to activate the clones. That wasn't a big concern to him right now; he'll keep going as long as he had to.

"Well now, it looks as if…." Krizalid suddenly cut his sentence short. He turned his head to the side in time to notice the red projectile that was just about to collide with his head. With a quick step back, he narrowly avoided it, watching sail towards the other side of the room only to get destroyed by another beam of energy courtesy of the machinery.

Noticing where it came from, he discovered the source of that attack. Raven was standing there with a look of embarrassment on his face, while the rest of the SSC were trying not to shake their heads in disappointment.

"Uh….That wasn't supposed to happen." Raven gave a nervous smile.

"Hmm. If it isn't the Shin Sekai Chitsujo…" Krizalid mused. "I knew there was a chance you would be here."

"Yyou mean you heard about us?"

"Of course. I was the one who approved your entry into the tournament, after all. Needless to say, I was very impressed with your run." Krizalid said, "But I can't help but wonder how you managed to get down here, thought. Where's Irena?"

"Don't worry, she's right here." Zyon said, presenting the unconscious girl in his arms.

Krizalid's face twisted into an expression of anger. "What have you done with her?!"

"Don't get so uptight. She's just knocked out." Raven assured, and Krizalid calmed down a bit.

"So, why are you here? Are you doing this in a vain attempt to try and impress my associate?" He pointed at K' and the others, "Or are you planning to come to the rescue of these people?"

"People?" Raven looked at the team on the other side of the room. "No way!" He scoffed, "We just want to stop you from doing whatever the hell you're trying to do with those clones."

Zyon, surprisingly, was more serious about this, "Things like this only lead to pain and heartbreak for everyone involved. I have to stop this, for the sake of my sister and everyone else." He placed Irena in a area in which she would be safe from any incoming attacks.

"My, my…you sure seem confident, especially considering you don't have a clue about how you're going to beat me." Krizalid said confidently.

Raven laughed a bit. "You haven't been watching us for the past few days, have you?" A confident smile formed on his face. "Because if you did, you would already have realized that underestimating us is a bad, bad idea."

"Well, since I do need a bit more data before our plan comes to fruition, I'll oblige you with a match." Krizalid shifted into his stance, which was so casual the SSC couldn't even tell.

"Fine then. Whatever happens to you, however, is your own fault." Raven cracked his knuckles. He was confident, since there was one thing up his sleeve that could prove to be a difference maker….

---

Shikkoku: Sorry about the wait, but between school, laziness, and accidently deleting a entire page and a half of dialogue and trying to rewrite the whole thing from memory, it's been tough.

In any case, there are only two chapters left after this. Other than that, there's nothing important.

Notes:

Some of you might wonder why I featured Krizalid so prominently in this chapter. Well, it's partly because out of all the NESTS bosses, he's my favorite. I wanted to get real specific with the whole clone plan too. I changed that little tidbit about them collecting the data from the battle with Orochi to just the '97 tournament because I seriously doubt that anyone besides Kyo, Iori, Chizuru and Orochi himself were present for that battle.

The other reason for the long exposition was to try to explain the clones. Now, in the game they can use flames with ease, but I decided that it would be much more interesting for them to lack the skill to use them in this story, as to better explain Krizalid's need for 'Trigger Data'.

Expect a (hopefully) decent battle next chapter. It'll definitely be longer than the one in this chapter.

Now….I said that I was going to talk about Nameless. I don't know (or care for that matter) the exact reasons they took K9999 out of KOF 2k2 Unlimited Match, but now we got him instead. I'm not going to bash him, but his storyline is pretty generic (fighting for a girl, how original), and I doubt he (or Isolde for that matter) will make an appearance in the next 2 acts of New Blood. That could change, however, if I can use them without screwing up the planned storyline too much.

Roseate Dawn and Flaming Arsenal, thank you both for reviewing. And for anyone else reading this, thank you as well for taking the time to read this.

Next chapter: The SSC vs. Krizalid. Everything comes to ahead as they fight with their lives (and possibly the world) at stake.

Until Next Time, Sayonara.