The Peace Project, part III

A month had passed since Nick Rivers had first entered Japan, and since then, more chaos had erupted that people were already calling the day he had arrived Second-and-a-Half impact, only half kidding. Nick seemed to be more trouble than could be believed, nearly destroying two Eva units, killing several NERV operatives, and getting into a fight with an Angel. Not to mention causing quite a stir when it was revealed that the Men in Black were helping him. With it now being commonly known, at least to those in the proper circles, that there were MIB agents in Japan, it seemed a war was going to start.

"You put government agents onto our soil with unknown instructions! You Americans have no honor!" Yelled the Japanese ambassador to the USA, in a meeting of the UN.
"We cannot confirm or deny having agents in Japan that your government was not informed about." Responded the American member, trying his best to avoid that subject. The Japanese Ambassador stood up, and was about to say something that would have had him fired, when the doors to the chamber opened, and a young man strode into the center of the semi-circular desks. He looked around, smiled, and gave a short bow to the assembled UN Members.
"I wouldn't recommend starting a war just yet, at least, not over something as small as that." The young man said, looking directly at the Japanese ambassador. "If you'll remember, you seem to have lost a city or two during the last world war as a result of actions like that." The Japanese ambassador sat down, while the rest of the assembly looked at the young man. It was, of course, Nick Rivers. He flashed his shark's smile at the American Represenitive, and continued. "A war is the last thing any of us need. Instead, I'd like to propose a contest, like the Olympics. Only different in every way."
The Swiss represenitive raised an eyebrow. He seemed to like the idea already.
"What would this contest entail, Mr...?" He asked, not knowing Nick's name.
"My name doesn't matter. However, the contest could. The Olympics are a world tradition, but they rely too much on luck. Finding the right people to enter, the right coaches, that sort of thing. What I propose is a contest where we will not pit people, those imperfect, chancy machines, against each other, but rather our greatest feats, our country's mecha."
"What about those countries that possess no mecha?" Asked the Mexican Ambassador.
"Well, they don't matter in the long run." With those parting words, Nick bowed again, and walked out, a chorus of applause following him out the doors.

"A contest? Doesn't sound too hard." Asuka had been told about the contest, as had the two other Japanese Eva pilots none of them were impressed by it. They considered their Evas the greatest creation of man, and figured they could take out anything people could throw at them. Asuka didn't want to go, and Misato was trying to convince her now, after their dinner.
"You know Nick's going to get involved, though." Misato responded.
"So? That idiot will probably end up killing the spectators, blowing up the mecha, and turning the stadium into a radioactive crater."
"A point, and somewhat likely. However, we have to be there to represent Japan."
"We? Only Shinji, Rei, and I will be there."
"Nope. You guys will need a support crew to refuel and repair the Evas. I'll be going along too."
"I feel sorry for you. Now you'll have to watch as I get a gold medal in every event."
"Only if second place has a gold medal too." Called a voice. Asuka whipped her head around, looking for the source of the voice in fear. She knew that voice, the voice of Nick Rivers. She calmed down a bit on finding the voice was only coming from the phone. However, nobody had picked up the phone, or even gone near the phone.
"And unless I'm mistaken, Asuka, weapons aren't allowed in this event, so you won't have to worry about me planting a nuke on unit two."
"Since when have the rules ever meant anything to you?" Asuka stood up, and walked over to the phone.
"About when I decided to use them to further the cause of the forces of good."
"...Killing people from NERV is somehow good now?"
"No, just not evil. Killing Gendo, now... Oh well. See you at the gam- " Asuka ripped the phone off of the wall and threw it out a window.
"Not if I see you first."

Gendo sat and read the list of participants with some mild surprise. Among the powered armor and small mecha that were to be expected in an international event like this were a few names that stuck out. Jet Alone, Theta, units Zero, One, and Two. It seemed like they would be the main event, the only five large mecha there. After thinking for a moment about sabotaging the competition and allowing his three Evas to win, he decided that, for once, he didn't care.

Shinji stared out the window of the Concorde high-speed jet, watching the ocean fly by under him. The games were to be held on Midway Island, as agreed by the governments involved. The Evas were already there, shipped a week before to save time. Suddenly, something jammed into Shinji's side, making him jump with fear.
"Jeez, Shinji. One would think you were nervous about this little competition." Asuka said, one of her bags having accidentally fallen onto Shinji.
"Well, people all around the world will be watching me, and the competition will be pretty tight." He responded.
"Tight? We're going up against Jet Alone! That piece of crap couldn't, and can't do anything!"
"I was there Asuka. It was stronger than the Eva, and its walking speed was almost the same as Eva's running speed! If Jet Alone had been working it could have beaten Eva into a pulp!"
"Well... maybe it could have beaten YOUR Eva into a bloody pulp, but I would have been fine."
"Sure." Shinji turned away from her, and waited for the plane to land.

"Looks like public enemy number one didn't show up. There's no sign of Theta anywhere." Misato said happily. "Disaster must be at least a mile away from the brink today."
"Disaster is always closer than you think," said Ritsuko, in a strained tone of voice. "And it's doubtful that Theta could have even been repaired by now. Our Evas can repair themselves to some extent, but Theta seemed to lack that ability."
"Yet another way that Japan is better than America."
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that..."
"What do you mean by that? Don't you have any national pride?"
"I'm being realistic. While Theta was in the Geofront, we scanned it regularly. It was well shielded, and we couldn't get much resolution, but what we did find was disturbing."
"Let me guess; you couldn't understand anything. There was too much equipment and it was so jumbled and complicated you never figured it out."
"How did you know?"
"Theta alone weighs more than our three Evas together. If you had even bothered to look at the pressure sensor you'd have been able to figure that out."
"I see. Well, the games are due to start in an hour. We'd better check on the pilots and see how they're doing" With that, Ritsuko left Misato.

Rei watched as Unit Zero was given a last-minute checkup before the opening event. It's new blue and white paintjob gleaming in the late morning sun. There were still a few unpainted welds around its neck, from what Theta had done to it. Rei had nearly died, a quick nerve disconnect the only thing that saved her life. She still remembered what had happened, the way Theta had gone mad and destroyed that angel with it's claws, ripping off Unit One's arms and legs in the process. The angel had been forced out, where Theta could kill it.
And speaking of Theta... Rei looked around, the other mecha standing in the huge hangar, filled with a grid of scaffolding to allow easy access to the giant machines. The giant, black form of Theta was nowhere to be seen. For some odd reason, Rei was sorry Nick wasn't there. Or maybe relieved. She wasn't sure which.

Asuka eased Unit Two out of the hangar and onto the huge arena. The Evas dwarfed most of the mecha there, the only thing close the new Jet Alone. Using a completely new design, the Jet Alone was almost beautiful now. Having realized that something computer controlled would tend to lack human ingenuity, the designers had completely redone Jet Alone, creating a new design that was designed to be fast and tough, at the expense of firepower. It was now painted a bright gold, and, although bulky as hell, had enough maneuvering jets and engineering tricks to make it even faster than the original.
Jet Alone was already on the field, it's shiny surface gleaming in the sun. As Asuka watched, it gave her a nod of it's crested head, as if to say hi. A small screen appeared on her monitors, showing only a black box. A moment later, a blue face faded into existence on the screen, and smiled.
"Asuka." it said, in a low voice.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I am Cain. I was hoping you could explain where Nicholas is."
"What do you mean? He never showed up."
"I consider him a friend. Please provide his location." Suddenly, Asuka had a thought.
"Why am I talking to a computer?" She turned off the screen and set the comm unit to ignore messages from the Jet Alone. For a moment she was almost sure that Cain had seemed alive. Almost. She reminded herself that Cain was only a computer, and then reminded herself that talking to yourself was a sign of insanity.

Unit One was in the back row of the assembled mecha. Shinji waited, bored, for the opening speeches to end. When the speaker stopped talking, Shinji looked up, only to see everyone looking at something behind him, towards the open end of the arena that faced the ocean. Shinji spun around, hoping not to be caught flat-footed by whatever threat was there.
He didn't see anything. Shinji sighed, thankful, until he saw it. Something was in the water, swimming below the surface towards them. It was too deep to make out any details, but he could see it was big. It shot towards him, and by the time his brain had registered the thought that he ought to get out of the way, it leapt out of the water in a tremendous splash. Shinji saw something land next to him, and he blindly punched it, almost snapping Unit One's hand off in the process. As the spray settled, a black shape resolved itself.
Unit Theta had arrived.

To be continued.