180 km/h...

I never thought this day would come.
I cautiously eyed the speedometer at the bottom of my visor. 

240 km/h...

"KARD! In front of you!" a squeaky female voice screamed in my ear piece.

"Just shut up Rin! I know!" I yelled in reply.

300 km/h...

The gray tracks below me were a blur, and my entire world was a single rapid straight line, constantly turning then straightening.

"Kard, you might want to slow down, this is just a test run..." a different, more mature female voice came through the ear piece.

"I am fine, Dr. Cherrylove."

Naw. Gotta go fast...

This was the first time I ever piloted a MS (Mobile suit: think of it as human sized robotic armor). Already, I felt like king of the world as I was tearing up the concreate. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a car, but running in this armor feels like roller skating. Except you're going faster than most sports cars.

360 km/h...

Faster...

Then, just like any adolescent boy ignoring his mother's advice, I took a misstep. My world was flipped upside down a million times before I eventually came to a stop, by crashing into the wall.

"Curses..." I cursed, as I tried to prop myself up amidst of the rubble.
Though my MS does look pretty lightweight, but after that crash, there was not the slightest hint of any damage except for a couple of paint scraped off; dang 11/10 durability. 

"KARD! If you want to die so badly then tell me!" Rin showed an angry blue kaomoji on my visor:

(╬ Ò﹏Ó)

"As your master, I command you to shut the hell up!" I said getting agitated.

"You? My master? I think you got the roles mixed up, now in compensation for hurting my head, go buy me a Stardelight vanilla chocolate!"

"You're an AI, how can you get hurt? Ugh! Dr. Cherrylove! Is there any way to uninstall her?"

"Can't touch this!" she said, as her blue holographic figure bounced all over the screen, with music playing in the background sounding very similar from MC Ham...

"Ok, you can stop playing that sound now..." I said, with the music completely playing over my voice.

"I can't hear you, the music is too loud!" she lied, as a blue kaomoji on my visor shifted:

(⇀‸↼‶)

Curses! This bitch...I swear the moment I get cross dimensional powers...

This argument went back and for about an eternity or so, and before both sides were out of breath and I decide to give in:

"Fine, I'll buy you the drink, curses..." I sighed climbing back on to my feet. As my whole body was still numb from the impact.

"The nearest Stardelight shop is 300 meters outside to the left!" Rin said excitedly.

Well I can certainly use a drink myself as well...

"Dr. Cherrylove, you don't mind if I..."
"Actually, I am feeling like having a cup of coffee as well, and can you also tell your friends to meet us there as well, there is something I need to tell you all." I could just picture that large sunny smile on her face.

"Sure..." I let out a small cry as I straightened my back.

"GO!GO!GO!" Rin urged.

"I know, just be quiet..." I said, feeling like one of my nerves was about to pop.
How does an AI even drink coffee in the first place?

***

"Ho! Last time I went to Stardelight coffee shop, I was even shorter then you!" Rumble teased, as he purposely lowered one hand to my height.
I was fairly average height, at 6ft, with a tall and lean build. For my whole life, I had short black hair (since long hair doesn't suit me), brown eyes and at the time I wore a dark winter jacket, 2 layers of shirt beneath and snowboarding pants.

"Well sorry, not everyone is like a giant asshole like you!" I taunted back.

"What you just say brat?" Rumble clenched his fist.

Rumble Ajkin, who was a few years older than me was my comrade from the previous battle. Towering at 7ft, his size alone makes him intimidating and with abs and chest sticking out from under his shirt, his body build was the envy of body builders. And to top of the intimidating outlook, he had blazing red hair spouting from his head, wild amber eyes, complete with black overcoat, white t-shirt, black jeans and combat boots.

"Do you both want to become dead meat that bad?" a sinister voice came from behind.

We both stop fighting at once, as my blood ran cold upon hearing the voice. Then almost in perfect synchronization, both me and Rumble turned around at once and saluted:
"NO SIR!"

"Then be quiet." Isa said, her voice making it final.

Isa Seifi, who was in her early twenties and was my coach and commander ever since I became part of the Iron Angel division. Standing around the same height as me, she had grey eyes speculating like a storm, and a long ponytail as white as pure snow. Though beautiful as she may look (first time I ever seen her wear tights with boots), but beneath that white overcoat and muscle shirt lies the abs of steel.

"What is this place?" Kuro looked around curiously as she steps inside the store.

"It's Stardelight, the world's biggest coffee chain store." I replied automatically and looked to her.

Kuro, who was slightly older than me (19 years old), and half a head shorter than me. Had the same eastern heritage just like me. She had long black silky hair, and had eyes like giant dark rubies (long story). She wore all black from top to bottom, winter coat, sweater, skirt, stockings, boots.

Dang. She really does stay character to her name...

Kuro was on the rebel's side when I met her, but in the end offered her aid to stop Soulsteel. Which proved to be her ultimate redeeming factor, and she was given a pardon by the courts for her past crimes.

"Well, it looks like everyone's here. Let's all go order something..." I said walking towards the line.

"Yo Kard, grab me a hot ginger goat milk! I will save you all a seat!" Rumble said, as he walked off.

"I will have the Roshan truffle mocha, no cream." Isa said dismissively, then walked off.

"I will have green tea." Kuro poked her head around, and eventually walked off.

Yep, I have kind of expected this to happen, but I still couldn't help but feel annoyed.

Curses.

***

"YAY! Stardelight vanilla chocolate!" a half foot hologram figure of Rin popped out of my left arm and stared at my drink, all googled eyed.

"Holy shit, is that your girlfriend Kard? Damn, she cute..." Rumble leaned over the table and stared at Rin, with his face written all over with in astonishment.

"Finally someone who appreciates my appearance!" Rin said with nose pointing upwards, and continued: "Don't get me wrong though, I am not his girlfriend, my standards are not that low..."

"Shut the hell up!" I said, covering the projector on my arm.

The fact that Rin was cute is undeniable, because her appearance was literally based off my previous crush: twin sea blue pony tail, sky blue eyes, petit build and wore a miniature version of the white school uniform. Though the only thing the two have in common was appearance though, nothing else.

"What is that?" Kuro asked plainly, as she stared at my covered arm.

"Oh, that's Rin, my personal AI. I had it with me since I got this arm." I said referring to my left arm, the first limb I lost.

2 months has passed since my last flesh limb was replaced with a robotic one, and 4 months since I lost my first arm. It made my regular teenage life before all of this seem like a distant dream, another lifetime even.

"Sorry I am late, I was getting changed." Came a sweet cheerful voice, as our entire table turned to the source of the voice.

It was Dr. Cherrylove, except she wasn't wearing her usual lab coat. Instead she was wearing a black fur coat, a fancy dark one piece dress with black stockings and heels to go with it. Her skin was a shade of rich oily tan, her long chocolate brown hair loosely dangled at her back, and those large brown eyes of her seemed to add to the hypnotizing effect. Though she appeared young and too hot to be real she was actually old enough to be my mom.

"Do you all mind if I take a seat..." before she even finished her sentence, Rumble shot up from his seat and pulled up a chair for her in a very gentlemen and uncharacteristic manner of himself.

"Ah, thank you!" Dr. Cherrylove thanked him as she took the seat, while Rumble blushed silently, and I was just face palming inside my head:

No, no, no, just no...

Though I did crack a smile at the thought of, when Rumble finds out her true age...

"I am glad all you came, now cutting straight to the chase!" Dr. Cherrylove set down her drink and clasped her hand together, then looked to all of us, who looked at her back to continue:
"As you all know, the finals are coming soon, and I am guessing none of you are familiar with the education structure of the school."

We looked to one another and shook our heads.

"Alright, jokes aside, this exam is a very serious matter, I am assuming none of you are taking the paper exam right? IIMT has one of the hardest academic standards in the world, its bachelor program is comparable to other universities master's program."

"I have only been to a military academy, all I learned was combat training and military tactics." Isa leaned back in her chair.

"I am not sure what that is, but I never graduated high school." Rumble shrugged.

"I never been to school." Kuro said a low voice.

To be honest, I was a regular ass high school student, with a B average. And the reason why we were in the world's top academy to begin with is because of the special division we were in.

"My, my, don't be so discouraged, there is another way." She paused then continued: "Have any of you heard about the 'real' test?"

Q: How do you prepare for final exams?