I've researched for what seems forever, and I cannot find anything explaining **how to break a mesh into a (distorted) grid of vector shapes**. I *don't* need to preserve any kind of gradient or coloring; I just, at least, need to keep the shape of the outline of the figure and convert it into a basic shape.

The concept is, I've used a mesh to distort a figure, but I now need to restore it back into a vector shape. If I can at least break the mesh into a grid of vector shapes, I can join them with the 'Pathfinder > Shape Modes > Unite'.