Vanessa (The King of Fighters)
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| Vanessa | |
|---|---|
| Game series | King of Fighters series |
| First game | King of Fighters '99 |
| In-Universe Information | |
| Birthplace |  USA |
| Blood type | B |
| Fighting style | Boxing |
Vanessa is a character in the King of Fighters series. She's a female boxer, one of the first females using this style in fighting games
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Before KOF
Vanessa's youth was comparable to that of a normal girl. As a young woman, she fell in love with a tender and caring man, who promised her the best in life. Time passed, and both got married.
Her husband worked for a corporation which specialized in the fabrication of weapons. Its name was unknown, but Vanessa caught hearing of the word "NESTS" mentioned a couple of times. It seemed that her husband was having trouble with this organization, and he wanted out, once he realized what kind of man his commander has become. One day, Vanessa's husband went out to work...never to come back. He suddenly vanished, and later reported as dead. The news caused havoc in Vanessa's soul. As a way to distract from the pain, Vanessa practiced boxing, which her husband excelled at. Her mind was full of questions, with no one to answer them. Her fury grew and grew, but there was no one to unleash it against. No longer could Vanessa hold back her suspicions. Vanessa joined the organization which her husband was once part of to find out the truth about NESTS.
[edit] NESTS saga
Working under the orders of commander Ling, Vanessa realizes that the organization was mostly a mercenary agency. Vanessa gained her superiors' confidence after several successful missions. Her sheer determination to find out the truth behind NESTS was what made her the ferocious woman she is now. After a while, Ling summons her to his office. She is commissioned with the job of joining the next King of Fighters tournament, held by Ling himself. They are to follow the footsteps of the NESTS cartel, which Ling and his agency persecuted. Vanessa thought it would be the perfect time to find out what's going on. Vanessa is introduced to Seth, another top mercenary. Vanessa is assigned the hardest job: win the trust of K' and Maxima, former NESTS agents, and perhaps a solid lead to NESTS themselves. Vanessa is also assigned to find another fighter for the team, a fighter she is given information about this... but not before being given a strange medical treatment....
After the briefing, Vanessa and Seth go their separate ways. First, Vanessa goes to Mexico and recruits Ramon, a professional wrestler who was glad to show his power and skill to the world. After that came the hard part: trying to convince K' and Maxima to participate in the tournament. After all, both of them did not want to risk their lives by becoming the main target of NESTS. However, Vanessa, just like them, wanted to destroy NESTS in order to bury her past, and live without drawbacks. Vanessa's dramatic story leads K' and Maxima to feel the same way, and finally accept her offer. Vanessa and the others have no problems in getting to the finals after letting their sheer sense of vengeance lead them to victory. Vanessa is contacted by Ling, and assigned to Southtown, where the finals are supposed to take place, in the industrial zone of the city. Weird things begin to happen once they set foot in Southtown, however, as they are suddenly attacked by a woman with similar features to those of K'. K' stays to fight his alter-ego, and urges the other to destroy NESTS. Vanessa accepts and heads towards the designated spot: an abandoned factory.
Surprisingly, Vanessa finds out that Seth and his team are in the same spot as well. Once inside, Vanessa and the others are forced into a dark room by the unexpected assault of NESTS' agents that surround the complex. Once inside, Vanessa realizes that it was a set-up, staged by her own commander, Clone Zero.
The memory of her departed husband burns into Vanessa's mind, and that is what finally helps her out in the final battle against Zero. After a hard fight, Zero is finally defeated by K'. Zero plans to fry everyone with the Zero Cannon anyway, but he is stopped by two enigmatic women. Without fully knowing what's going on, a huge stone falls on Vanessa's head, and everything goes dark... She awakes to being carried by Ramon, who demostrates to her that they aren't simple teammates.
In the next year, Vanessa's fists blaze once again in the King of Fighters tournament, making a new team with Ramon, Seth and Iori Yagami, and pummeling faces to her heart's content. Vanessa's lightning paced speed and solid blows take her far into the tournament, until she finally gets the chance to visit the main HQ of NESTS: a space station. Vanessa witnesses with relief how NESTS is finally thwarted, and falls in ruins down to Earth.
[edit] Ash Saga
After the events of the NESTS saga, Vanessa and Ramon work as freelance agents, until the undercover agent Blue Mary hires them to make a team for the new King of Fighters XI tournament, and find the truth about Ash Crimson and the new Orochi's sect. Vanessa and Ramon accept the deal and join Mary to participate in the new KOF.
[edit] Trivia
- Vanessa's last name has never been mentioned at any time.
- Vanessa was a secret striker in the KOF 99' game for Sega Dreamcast, along with Seth. Because of their similar attire, most fans assumed the two were related somehow. They later appeared as teammates from KOF '01 to '02.
- While it is possible to have Vanessa in an infinite series of cancelling her Parry Stance into her Puncher Vision step moves and back, to keep an opponent guessing, this will do nothing to confuse a CPU opponent.
- In KOF '02 and XI appearances, Vanessa has a special technique borrowed from Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2's own Rick Strowd, his Hellion, dubbed the Forbidden Eagle for her version. It is unknown how Vanessa learned the same special move.
- Vanessa had ripped off another technique from Rick for her '02 HDM move. His old Gaia Breath (gutpunch to straight punch that shoots out a giant wind burst) was renamed Gaia Gear for some reason when she incorporated it into her moveset.
- Vanessa is very unique in possessing two different leader moves (only Iori Yagami ('03 only) and Ash Crimson (XI only) can also make this claim). Vanessa's normal stand-alone LDM simply increases her combo cancelling-ability for several seconds. She possesses a second, dream-cancel (DM into LDM) only super which acts as a more conventional, damage dealing move.
- Vanessa appears in the background of the evening time Tower Festival stage in KOF: Maximum Impact 2.
