Anti spiral is probably a worse enemy than Zion
I mean yes, Zion blows up planets, the Anti-Spiral will attack you with the Big Bang and the estimated amount of energy to kill them is infinity^11+1. As soon as Scion saw the energy outputs he would probably just run. The thing is with Jumpchain you can legitimately do anything, so by the time Joe has the full CF he will be able to win that fight.
While I enjoyed the chapter, it really felt like Alec was being excessively vague in order to preserve various plot points rather then because he wouldn't want talk about things. I thought the whole point of the call was for Alec to open up communications, but I felt like almost nothing was actually said.
The whole call felt like Alec was saying, "Heya ya know there is stuff and things, and Lisa and Brian have stuff and things", and Joe replies " Gotcha, thanks for clarifying that there was stuff going on, and people had things they are worried about. I hadn't realized" Then Alex says, "Taylor has stuff too, not sure what though, but definitely stuff, or maybe things" Which Joe then replies, "I knew she had things, or maybe stuff, don't worry about it."
All so that the continued misunderstandings and confusion can continue, and no actual communication happen. The only thing I saw communicated out of the call was that the undersides could call Joe's team if they wanted.
While I have an infinitely ongoing nitpick about Joe not being allowed to learn of the connection between Brian and Aisha for the sake of allowing Aisha character growth down the line, I don't think you are given the conversation enough credit. Alec wasn't calling Joe with the intention of telling him everything because he didn't want to be a snitch on his team, however he did recognize that they were spiraling out of control and needed some help.
Alec tries to demonstrate empathy for Lisa by telling Joe she is burning herself out on power usage for some grand plan, but Joe knew that from his phone call with her and reassures Alec that he is already working with her. Alec tries to demonstrate empathy for Rachael by telling Joe the team is mad at her, and it's creating tension, and Joe tells him he is aware of the issue. Alec tries to demonstrate empathy for Brian twofold by 1 trying to help Brian with his personal situation and 2 not breaking the unwritten rules to Joe, of which Joe says he is aware of the general situation and is willing to offer support if need be. Lastly, Alec tries to demonstrate empathy for Taylor by telling Joe that she is in over her head on a secret project, which Joe again says he is aware of. The thing about all of this, is even if Joe was aware of a lot of the previous paragraphs events vaugely this both gives him a second opinion, as well as validates them as concerns to both himself and Alex because both recognizes the other sees them as issues to be worked on.
Finally, and most importantly, Alec told Joe a few pieces of new information, which were important. That they had an in person meeting with their boss and that fact scared him, since it was a point of no return. Joe can easier help the team, and will probably be monitoring that situation remotely and be ready to intervene if Coil tries anything during the meeting. Secondly, he gave Joe a heads up that they were going to be stepping up, and suddenly, which while not a full warning that the group is going to fight the Teeth, does give Joe some amount of mental warning. Joe in turn informs Alec that his team is available to talk if needed, which will probably be important in the future.
In conclusion, while the quantity of information exchanged wasn't large, it had a lot of meaning as far as character growth and set up towards the future.
Anyway, good chapter if a bit low-key. Now looking forwards to his visiting the gym. Still think at least some people in the gym are well aware Joe is a Cape, and most likely Apeiron (the Enigmatic Artificer). I mean, Aisha picked up on it. Are we really meant to believe she was the smartest/most observant person at the gym?
The people at the gym do believe he is a cape, Aisha also believed he was a cape, she didn't know he was Apeiron until she followed him home. WoG is that the people at the gym have concocted a loose narrative along the lines of, "Tech based college dropout who wants to be relevant while tinkers are slowly becoming more active in the city and has unnaturally good handyman/mechanic skills whose car ran in the dead zone". Basically, all the other tinkers were fighting, Joe wanted to use his tech background to help, but couldn't since Tinkertech is too advanced for him and triggered himself. So he is now either a minor tinker or technology thinker hanging around the community center practicing on their stuff while starting his build up phase.
