To Butterfly: Lynchpin put Night Bat in charge of his team of super-humans at the end of "Purity and Corruption," which is why Mecha-Man calls him "boss." He also calls Antoine "boss" because he's the one who designed the suit. They don't have an "order" in the same sense as the Dark Acolytes or anything like that, but they do have a chain of command.
To MiraculousReader: The objective for the police in "Counterdiction Chapter 1" was to seize the warehouses and arrest Lynchpin's people; Mecha-Man's objective in that chapter was to escape from the warehouse and salvage as much as he could. For chapters 3-5, the primary objective for the police and heroes was to capture the boat's contents and the criminals so they could build a case against Lynchpin; if they couldn't complete that primary objective, then their secondary objective was to prevent Lynchpin from keeping it. That's why Miss Pinky planted a tree on the boat in chapter 5: a tree root through the hull would hopefully either sink the boat or ruin some/all of the drugs. The villains' objective in those chapters was to keep the ships' cargos.
Max sighed and replayed the footage for the fifth time. The drone dropped down on the port side of the boat and scanned through the hull. Seven wooden crates were highlighted – the drone's scanner had insufficient data to identify the species of tree. A sensor shot out of the drone and attached to the hull next to the crates and scanned them via resonant frequency, x-ray, and electromagnetism simultaneously. Turing's processor had taken the readings and identified pure cocaine in six of the crates. On scanning the seventh crate, the readings had matched several extraterrestrial elements, though the scan did not show the outline of the contents. Moments after completing that scan, the drone feed turned to static and was lost.
Shifting to the footage from the second drone, Max watched as Mecha-Man fired an energy blast at Taureau Dechaine on the boat's top deck. Taureau Dechaine deflected the energy blast by spinning his cattle prod in a shield. Then Mecha-Man seemed to hesitate, cocked his head, turned his arm cannon down, and shot the first drone directly through the boat's railing.
"Turing, what was happening right before Mecha-Man destroyed Drone 1?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"There was a brief lull in the fighting on the boat," Turing replied promptly, floating to one side of Max's head. "Based on available data, I calculate a 50% chance that Mecha-Man heard the drone's rotors spinning and targeted the noise."
Max nodded. "That is my conclusion, as well," he agreed, setting his mouth in disappointment. "It is unfortunate that he was able to locate and destroy the drone so easily."
"It performed its function optimally," argued Turing. "It acquired the necessary information and transmitted it to me before its destruction."
"It did, but I would prefer to improve the drones' survivability, rather than have to replace them repeatedly if this becomes a common occurrence." Max shifted the display to show the drone design. "Reducing the noise level is a logical starting point, but there is no way to do so when starting from the commercial body."
"Are we going to design the next prototype from scratch?" Markov chirped, hovering on Max's other side.
Max nodded, just as the lab door opened. He turned around to see Sabrina leaning against the doorframe, watching him with her arms folded over her chest and smiling. He returned her smile. "Good morning! I was unsure if you planned to come today."
"I thought you might want company to go through the results from yesterday," she told him, taking her accustomed seat at the lab table and picking up a tablet. "Also, my parents are inviting you for dinner again tonight, and they will not take 'no' for an answer this time!"
Max frowned as he sat down opposite her at the table. Her parents had invited him a couple times since Spring Break, but he had always been busy. Seven times he had already been scheduled to eat with the Lê family. Twice he had been in the lab, assisting Viperion's team in their mission in the port cities. Once he had been forced to cancel at the last minute because of a Heroes of Paris emergency – Tyran-X and Mecha-Man had nearly caused a train derailment, and it had taken the combined efforts of himself, an Akuma helper, and Taureau Dechaine and Multiplice, who had happened to be nearby at the time, to prevent it without injuries. Both Captain Raincomprix and Sabrina had also missed dinner that night as a result. However, he had interacted with Sabrina's parents on a limited number of occasions since the two of them had begun dating, and every interaction had been positive from his perspective.
Why the sudden insistence?
Sabrina looked up at him and started laughing. "It's not going to be bad," she assured him, covering his hand with her own. "They weren't angry or upset when they brought it up this morning."
"Well, if they insist, then the only appropriate response is to say 'yes,'" he replied, grinning sheepishly.
"So what is the project for today?" she asked, smiling encouragingly.
"The next shipment is not scheduled for another two days," he reported. "This morning I have been analyzing Mecha-Man's destruction of my drone yesterday. There is room for improvement in the design, but that will require building a new model from the bolts up when time and resources permit."
"These worked pretty well," she pointed out, gesturing to the schematic. "The anti-venom dart launcher was especially useful."
Max nodded. "Agreed. All the same, there is room to improve the drones' versatility significantly in the next model. However, at this time I believe it would be more prudent to analyze the information the drone acquired."
Sabrina opened an inventory list on her tablet and furrowed her brow, sticking her tongue out slightly in concentration. Max watched her eyes skim over the screen. "Are these elements that you've already catalogued?" she asked without looking up.
Max nodded and gave Markov a look, at which the robot activated his holographic projector to display Max's supplemental periodic table. If a year ago someone had asked him the probability of him discovering and studying elements not found on the existing terrestrial periodic table, he would have placed the odds of that around 3% at the highest. And yet, here he was. "Markov?"
Five of the elements started blinking. "There were no unidentified elements present," Markov reported. "No terrestrial elements were present apart from those consistent with the shipping container and packaging."
Sabrina looked at the periodic table and then back down at her tablet. "Something about this list of elements sounds familiar," she observed, looking up at him in surprise.
"Analyze the percentage of each element present and compare to all known examples," Max instructed, looking over at Turing and Markov. Sabrina reached across the table, put her hand over his, and squeezed his hand gently as they waited for the robots to complete their analysis.
"I have identified one sample which matches the elemental composition of the scan within 2% margin of error," Turing announced promptly. "The center console of the extraterrestrial craft recovered last year."
"Based on the dimensions of the crate and the schematic from our sample," added Markov, "that piece could be shipped intact in this manner."
"Colombia," Max announced gravely. It was after lunch, and Max, Sabrina, Marinette, and Julia were sitting around the Heroes' conference table. In deference to their American guest, they were speaking English. "Based on available data, it is statistically probable that Lynchpin has gained access to an extraterrestrial craft in Colombia. He has been smuggling the pieces into Paris with his drug shipments."
"Really? You think he managed to find a whole ship?" Marinette asked, wide-eyed. "How is that even possible?"
"Given the size of the ship we recovered," replied Max, shrugging, "it is conceivable that it was carried by something larger – the ship which created the debris field we have been analyzing and from which I have spent the last three months recovering samples. A ship large enough to carry one smaller ship could carry several. Additionally, from my examination – such as I have been able to do under the circumstances – I have concluded that the engines on our ship are sufficient for movement in orbit but impractical for long-distance travel. When the larger ship was destroyed, perhaps it released these smaller ships, which fell in different parts of the planet. We recovered one; Lynchpin evidently recovered another."
"In other words, they are basically escape pods," Sabrina explained.
"What is the risk if he has?" asked Julia.
"Unknown," Max answered. "The Mecha-Man exo-suit incorporates reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology in the arm cannons, little different from that with which I have been experimenting. Lynchpin's energy weapons are all based on the same extraterrestrial models. If they are able to reverse-engineer other technology from the ship, the possibilities are extensive in terms of their potential applications."
Marinette furrowed her brow in concentration. "How do we prevent it?"
Max turned to Julia. "The parts that definitively came from a ship were included in a shipment through Panama," he told her. "Has your team identified Lynchpin's supplier? I believe that to be the most logical first step in locating his extraterrestrial ship."
Julia nodded. "Onça Feroz and Bandido succeeded in following a truck back to the source only a few days ago. We are ready to move on the farm, but Onça Feroz requests your assistance to portal her team to the location in order to maintain the element of surprise. Can you help?"
Max glanced over at Sabrina before nodding. "I will portal to your temple tomorrow to assist in the mission," he agreed. "Tonight, however, I am previously occupied."