In regards to the Lisa talk...
I kind of gave up on her when she saw him become a more powerful Demigod right in front of her, then immediately decides to refuse to tell him her suspicions about Dinah Alcott's kidnapping. He could have literally stormed Coils base within the day, rescuing Dinah (and Lisa as well, from all the threats), but no. 'Course, that would have derailed the anti-ABB section of the story, so I understand why LordR went that way, but it still paints Lisa in a very unsympathetic and unforesightful light.
I think you're glossing over the fact that Lisa is
genuinely scared of Coil. I believe fear is driving her actions in regards to him more than any need to 'prove herself'. At this point in the story, she doesn't know what Coil's power is, only that it's some sort of Thinker power and that it trumps hers. And she has no reason that any of the Undersiders (besides Taylor) would actually side with her over Coil once their employer is known (At this point in story, Brian is convinced he needs their backer's support to win custody over his sister, Rachel needs the money he's providing for her dogs, and canon-Alec doesn't really care so long as he doesn't have to deal with his family. CF Alec might start to have concerns (which we kind of see in the interlude) but not enough to risk biting their employer's hand just on Lisa's say-so.) In addition, while Bitch and Regent might to decide to leave, it's far easier for them to do so, as Coil probably wouldn't even bother chasing them, but
Tattletale knows too much. And
Lisa knows this. The only one of the Undersiders Lisa has (arguably - depending on the interpretation of her character) genuine attachment to is Taylor, because she's worried about her, but in Lisa's mind she believes the other 'Siders wouldn't go out on a limb for her if it went against their interests. Even Brian, who is often depicted as the most reasonable/level-headed of them.
Sure, Joe is a powerhouse and could probably do everything you mentioned, but Lisa has no reason to know that. At the time of their conversation, her power was exhausted from trying to deal with both March and Joe's bullshit Thinker disruption powers, and she was at the end of her rope, that whole conversation only being possible because Joe was holding back the effects of the overuse of her Thinker power. I have no reason to believe she was thinking clearly at that point.
As for Joe storming Coil's base?
HOW? Even Lisa doesn't know where it is, and even if she told him,
she had no reason to believe he could safely deal with Coil in a way that wouldn't leave her watching her back for the rest of her life. Hell, it's been implied that Lisa has never even been to his
true base
. Lisa is only going to get one shot. She can't afford to fuck it up if she doesn't want a bullet in the brain, which is why she hesitates. Not to mention, from her time of being as a cape, and knowing about the cape scene, she likely thinks Joe is unstable as hell, even without the random bits of information her power tosses her way regarding him. Keep in mind that apparently a lot of people see Apeiron as a 'Mad Scientist', and given the limited information that the outside world actually knows,
it's not exactly an unfair speculation.
People keep talking about all the crap Joe can do, but nobody knows what he can do, Joe isn't going to tell them, and that is the problem. If Lisa actually understood what Joe was capable of (which, he isn't going to tell her because he does not really trust her with that), she absolutely would go all in with Joe, with no hesitation, because she knows from her power that Joe genuinely means her no harm, and is more concerned with keeping them alive than controlling them. Hell, once it becomes clear that Coil is their employer (probably when he finds out about the Alcott situation as well), Joe will probably be initially incredibly pissed at Lisa for hiding it, but then likely get over it out of sympathy for her situation.
Lisa has manipulated Joe to keep him and PRT at odds at each other. A wog said she did it by only saying half of the truth to mean something else. To lie by omission with her goal to deceive. Kinda like the Fey. Coil too has manipulated the scene for that his own stake in it. Just wanting to say that Lisa is no innocent child. However I admit I'm biased against her.
What did she do to manipulate him to keep him and the PRT at odds of each other? The only thing I could possibly conceive of him in this way was their little Post-Healing Panacea chat, and all she did was tell him how the PRT was reacting to what he did, and to his little hairpin that he gave to Amy. She's literally done nothing to keep him from talking to the PRT, or try to convince him not to. Everything since then has been his decision, not hers. I'm not sure what WoG you're referring to (this thread is too long for me to try finding them all) but I genuinely can't remember a place where she manipulated Joe to keep him from talking with the PRT. Something he's done on at least 2 occasions at this point (Weld under the sea, Weld/Dragon on PHO, Weld after the Lung incident, Weld after the whole 'Enigmatic Artificer' debacle.)
Another pitfall is that she has to get revenge on Coil. She cannot just escape, she must prove the she can win
I think is a misunderstanding of her situation. I don't really think she gives a damn about revenge or proving she can win. She just wants him gone so she doesn't have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.
I'll be the first to admit that Lisa is no angel, but I think people are going a little hard on her since Joe can apparently solve her problems.
Not that she knows that.
Actually given how classy Uppercrust seems to be and how experienced he is and seeing the visible surprise from the locals he'll probably just roll with the punches and understand how this wasn't possible for his resources to find. No "kill the messenger" tropes here… probably.
If anything, this experienced cape who has no real skin in the city is probably finding the situation hilarious, probably making mental remarks about 'young whippersnappers not prepared for the big leagues if they can be thrown off their game this easy'. Also, Uppercrust in this story has been depicted as one of the more 'reasonable' members of the Elite, so I doubt he's inclined to use the 'kill the messenger' trope in any circumstance.
That's bad for business after all.
The whole Uppercrust angle is interesting, because as Joe remarked in a previous chapter when talking about him, healing him is probably the right thing to do (Uppercrust maintains coastal defense shields all over the country it sounds like, and it's not like Joe intends to take over that, even if he'd be able to get permission), but he also notes that doing so might trigger a civil war within the Elite - one of the biggest cape organizations in the country - and there
will be fallout from that in one form or another.
I mean, what
I'd like to see is him agree to treat him, but to shoot of a message to Armstrong beforehand that he's going to do it, so that he can warn Protectorate national about the Elite potentially starting to do some weird shit as a result. And then as 'payment' from Uppercrust, to keep the Elite out of BB for some period of time, and then to ensure that the resulting strife ends
quickly.
You know, I wonder if Faultline will take the plunge and ask the scary Gilded Gibbon if he knows what's the cause of the C53 or where they come from. Because last time Jozef seriously freaked out about it when Weld asked him because of the Fanon Shard's warning.
I mean, the best response he can give is that while he doesn't know the true source, he has an idea 'why' it is happening, and that it is genuinely too dangerous to discuss lightly. "Dangerous. Something
I consider dangerous. Food for thought."
I think you're jumping a little ahead here. Alec made those conclusions using those powers, but I doubt he is going to jump to Survey and Fleet being Drones right away as they look really human already, and people tend to assume things after coming to an initial conclusion (Likely, he'll just think that Joe's tech is somehow stopping the power somehow). Tybalt's power forces people to consider him 'normal', so the idea of him being a 'pet' isn't going to cross anyone's mind.
As far as Tetra, if pressed Joe can simply say she was always a member of his team, but simply concealed on him to gain an edge, and that the two can't do that anymore due to March's attack.
But in the end, even if Alec came to those conclusions, he isn't going to talk about it because he doesn't want to risk pissing Joe off. The other gangs have no chance of figuring out, because they've had little to no exposure to Joe.
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