Vinyl wriggled somewhat uncomfortably in her chair, the frilly princess dress Kalinka had foisted on her for the day a little uncomfortable. While she didn't really like the idea of being dressed up like this, she was able to tolerate it due to two major things. First, Kalinka's argument that neither of them had gotten much of a chance at these 'super frilly' tea parties with another girl when they were younger was a very valid reasoning to do so now, if only to say they had. The other point that made things much easier to tolerate was Kalinka's insistence that all attendees meet the dress code...and Forte's expression as he fussed with his silver ball gown was priceless. It was only the promise that the successfully completed Bassnium power core meant she could soon begin his upgrades that had him sitting there, and not tearing the dress off and storming out of the room.
Admittedly, Albert, Mikhail, and Protoman were also in frilly medieval dresses, but the two humans were far more sanguine about it, and Protoman somehow managed to still look cool with his shades and scarf, which he refused to take off. What really confused Vinyl was how the scarf continued to blow despite the absence of breeze, but even when it rubbed against the fabric of Protoman's crimson ball gown, the dress didn't so much as ruffle. She made a mental note to use her next break from plotting her conflict with Mega Man to study this 'essence of cool' to see how it worked.
"More tea, Countess?" Kalinka asked, offering the teapot to Protoman.
"Please," Protoman replied, holding his cup out for a refill.
Being brought back to the moment, Vinyl munched on the last 'biscuit' as Typhon - dressed in a butler's outfit - brought a fresh plate out. He then paused as he received a signal. "An incoming teleport request...from Light Labs," he stated firmly. "...signal match to Mega Man, but lower energy."
"What?" Wily demanded, stunned. "How did he know where we are?"
"Because I invited him to the tea party," Vinyl explained readily, sipping her tea.
Everyone turned to stare at her, stunned. Protoman was the first to speak up. "Wasn't the whole point of having this place so that he could never track where your real home base was so that he couldn't arrest Wily again?"
"Well, he can't," Vinyl countered. "We're an independent nation now, not subject to the International Robotics Committee, or any other world authority. Dad also is the country's official ruler, so Mega Man doesn't have the authority to arrest him, or even capture him."
"What if he's sent to arrest me for war crimes?" Albert asked worriedly.
"Do you really think any government down below will want to risk the precedent of giving a robot authority to arrest a world leader?" Vinyl inquired innocently. "The whole reason Sky Lagoon is thriving is because everyone who wants to trust robots as equals to humans are living up here with us." She paused, scratching her chin. "Well, everyone but Dr. Light, anyway..."
"How come he isn't?" Mikhail asked curiously. "I mean, I know you're both still rivals, Albert, but-"
"Punishment for not programming Mega Man to recognize me as human until after it almost destroyed him," Vinyl interrupted, munching another 'biscuit'. "Why are these called biscuits, anyway? They sure look like cookies to me."
"I think it's supposed to sound fancier," Kalinka replied.
Albert stared at Vinyl in shock as Protoman looked away, not meeting anyone's eyes. "H...how did you know-"
"The control room has security cameras," Vinyl explained easily. "I went over the feed while planning my own eight Robot Masters. I know what Mega Man started to do." She sipped from her tea. "I also hacked Light Labs security cameras, and saw what it was doing to Rock, and how hard he had to struggle against what his programming core tried to make him do."
Albert sighed. "I didn't want you to know, because I didn't want to destroy your love of robots and faith in them," he murmured, reaching out to stroke her mane.
Vinyl nuzzled into it, but blew a raspberry. "Dad, I had to scrap Doc Robot's programming three times because he thought the most efficient way to steal the Energy Elements was to shoot Dr. Light in the head, leaving all other robots present locked in a Three Laws logic corruption lockup because they witnessed a robot killing a human. I know how easy it is to make a mistake like that. I'm not going to hold it against Mega Man because Dr. Light was too stupid to run simulations for all possible scenarios before setting him loose with combat upgrades." She threw her hooves in the air in frustration. "I mean, I wasn't even talking complete sentences regularly yet, and I knew better than that! And the simulation program was right there in his lab computer! I didn't even have to make them myself!"
Albert and Mikhail exchanged glances at that. "So...Tom's punishment of never living up here with us...is because he's an idiot?"
"Yup!" Vinyl replied. "But Rock has a code that will let him - but not Mega Man - request a beam-up. It's not fair to punish him for his Dad's mistake when he nearly tore himself apart inside to protect me." She turned to Typhon. "Approve the beam-up, and grab the blue chiffon."
"Yes, Vinyl," Typhon replied, sending the signal and going to the closet for a rather rakish blue chiffon gown.
Rock - in civies, rather than his Mega Man armor - beamed in. "Hey Vinyl!" he greeted warmly. "You invited me for-"
"You must meet the dress code," Typhon proclaimed firmly, holding out the dress.
Rock stared at the dress. "...he's kidding, right?" he begged, looking up at those around the table.
"Nope," Forte replied, shaking his head. "Though seeing you dealing with this might actually make it tolerable."
"Bolt you very much, too," Rock replied, taking the dress into the indicated changing area even as Vinyl clapped happily.