Time Lens
As the Pride fled from an attack by numerous Monster Mind vines in space, it came face-to-face with a quasar. Shortly afterwards, a comet collided with the quasar, causing a massive explosion. Many pieces of glowing white matter were blown outwards, shattered like a dinner plate, then retracted and fused together to form a giant Time Lens. Immense gravitational forces pulled the barge straight into it, and waves of energy destroyed the incoming Monster Mind vines. Unwilling to let his prey escape yet again, Saw Boss sent a large red satellite after them.
The League travelled twenty-five years into the past, landing on Jayce and Gillian's idyllic home planet long before the Monster Minds took it over. At that time, Audric was Jayce's age. Attending a school of higher learning, he had a reputation for being a good pilot and was a successful science student, not to mention wonderful at playing arcade games. The Lightning League decided to track Audric down in order to warn him not to do the experiment that would create the Monster Minds. If this younger version of Audric heeded their warning, then the Monster Minds would cease to exist.
Just when the League found him, Monster Mind troopers attacked, having been brought in by the satellite. In the ensuing battle, Jayce was blinded by a surprise blast of floodlight from a K.O. Trooper. Audric tricked the troopers into firing on each other and agreed to try to help him regain his sight. In the school chem lab, Audric invented a chemical solution of optimus, retinex, and membersine to change the size of Jayce's pupils, thus successfully restoring his sight. Catching up to them after the battle was over, the Lightning League warned Audric not to do the future experiment, then rushed off to fight a second wave of Monster Minds.
Audric assisted them again, attacking the enemy troopers from above, and the invading forces were defeated once more. Right after he swore to remember Jayce's warning, a Saw Trooper broke free from the rubble and used its buzz-saw to destroy Audric's flyer. He was knocked unconscious from the explosion, stunned but not severely injured.
After making sure he was all right, the League went back to the future through the Time Lens. A friend of Audric found him just as he regained consciousness. Due to the accident, didn't remember anything except that he had "something important" to do. From then on, Audric devoted his life to the science and helping people, both of which eventually led him to conduct the experiment that accidentally created the Monster Minds.
The Lightning League returned to its own time only to discover that the Monster Minds still existed. After the Time Lens faded into nothingness behind them, they fought their way through the waiting vines and continued on their quest.
Jayce: "Nothing will stop them! Herc, give her more power!"
Herc: "If I do, we'll be picking up the pieces!"
Herc: "Hey, Pride old girl, I'm supposed to do the steering!"
Flora: "I feel something -- a strange happening in space!"
Gillian: "It's a quasar! My, my, what an interesting phenomenon."
Herc: "I don't know about a 'phenomenon,' but if we don't get outta here, none of us is gonna get any older!"
Jayce: "Hold her steady, Herc! There's gotta be a way out of this!"
Herc: "Hey! Time's running backwards! Okay, what's going on?!"
Gillian: "I'm afraid, my friend, we are on a trip back through time."
Jayce: "Into the past? But where are we going?"
Gillian (contentedly): "Ahhh... we've arrived at a wonderful place. Our home planet before the Monster Minds arrived."
Jayce: "But how long before the Monster Minds?"
Gillian: "The computer readout shows we've travelled back twenty-five years."
Jayce: "That's before I was born -- Father was a teenager then."
Oon (amazed): "Master Audric is here, as a kid?!"
Gillian (chuckling): "Yes, just about Jayce's age now."
Jayce: "I could tell Father about the experiment that created the Monster Minds! Do you know what that means?!"
Oon: "No more Monster Minds!"
Gillian: "We have to be expeditious, Jayce! According to my calculations, the Time Lens will close in two hours, thirty-eight minutes, and forty seven seconds. Ahhh, give or take a tenth of a second."
Jayce (determined): "We must find Father -- we MUST!"
Herc (resigned): "Ahhh, I knew it."
Saw Boss: "Excellent! My troopers have penetrated the mysterious portal along with those insufferable humans! The strange phenomenon they passed through is affecting with our communications, but it will NOT interfere with them destroying that boy and the Root!"
Jayce: "My old school! Father also went here!"
Jayce (politely): "Excuse me, we're looking for a science student, maybe you know him?"
Blond Student (friendly): "We got lots of kids taking science -- who're you looking for?"
Jayce: "He's about my age, his name is Audirc."
Blond Student (amused): "Audric? Yeah, I know an 'Audric.' There's only one in the school by that name."
Jayce: "I have to see him, talk with him."
Blond Student: "He's over there in the arcade. You can't miss him!"
(After a helmeted player creams an enormous bearlike Godzilla creature in a life-sized arcade game)
Herc: "Oh, that guy in the red ship is pretty good! Not great, but, not bad."
Flora (hero-worshipping): "He's wonderful! Isn't he, Jayce?"
Jayce (impressed): "Yeah!"
(As the crowd cheers, the player removes his helmet to reveal a much-younger, more carefree, smiling Audric)
Jayce (in wonderment): "Father!"
Jayce: "Excuse me, Audric! Can I talk with you?"
Blond Student: "AUDRIC! Some weird creatures are destroying the city!"
Young Audric: "What?"
Jayce: "No, it can't be!"
Flora: "Jayce, they're here! Monster Minds are here!"
(After saving Audric from being run over by a Saw Trooper)
Jayce: "Father, are you all right?!"
Young Audric (shell-shocked): "Father?"
Jayce: "Uh-oh...!"
Herc: "Sorry kid, had to cover for you again!"
Oon: "Please, help Master Jayce, Master Audric!"
Young Audric: "I'm no doctor, I'm just a spare jockey!"
Jayce: "Don't ask me how I know, but someday you'll be a great scientist -- you have the talent! You have to help me -- there's no-one else! I need your help."
Young Audric: "Okay, so I do know a little about science, but-but I can't guarantee anything!"
Young Audric: "Constrictors, hmmm... by the size of your pupils, the bright flash beam caused your blindness."
Oon: "Is Master Jayce going to be all right, Master Audric?"
Young Audric: "If I can change the size of his pupils back again."
Oon: "Then you CAN help my master, Master Audric!"
Young Audric: "I told you, I'm not a doctor, and I can't guarantee anything!"
Oon (disheartened): "Yes, Master Audric."
Young Audric: "And one more thing, stop calling me 'Master.'"
Oon (disheartened): "Yes, Master Audric."
(As Oon trudges off, Audric heaves a long sigh, then gets back to work)
Young Audric: "...This should do it, a mixture of optimus, retinex, and membersine."
Jayce: "Everything is fuzzy -- but wait, I can see again!"
Oon: "WHOOPEE!"
Young Audric: "I did it! Hey, it feels good to help someone."
Jayce: "And especially someone who is your son!"
Young Audric: "My son -- my son?! Boy, that bright beam must've damaged your brain, too."
Jayce: "I know it sounds crazy -- I can hardly believe it, either -- but somehow, my friends and I travelled back through time!"
Young Audric: "Hey, c'mon, I like you guys, but if this is a joke, it isn't funny!"
Jayce: "No, Audr- Father, it isn't! It's serious, you must believe me, the future of the universe DEPENDS on it!"
Young Audric: "Oh SURE -- 'the future of the universe!' What kinda trip are you trying to lay on me?"
Oon: "You must believe my master, Master Audric!"
Young Audric: "AND STOP CALLING ME 'MASTER!'"
Young Audric: "All right, all right, I'll listen to you!"
Gillian: "Jayce, tell him!"
Jayce: "Please, Fa- Audric. Just listen: sometime in the future you will conduct an experiment with plants that will accidentally create the Monster Minds who came with us from the future. Don't do that experiment!"
Audric: "But I'm going to be a space pilot, not a...! (Stares at Jayce's completely honest expression of future truth) *Sigh* Okay, I WON'T DO that experiment!"
(Audric pulls Jayce aside as the League rushes off to fight again)
Young Audric: "Hey! Be careful, okay?"
Jayce (relaxing and smiling): "Yeah."
Jayce: "We can't leave the Monster Minds here, so -- only one thing to do. Let's take 'em! Lightning Strikes!"
(After four troopers fall into Drill Sergeant's ditch, Herc floods it with skid gun fluid courtesy of Spray Gunner)
Flora: "Way to go, Herc!"
Herc: "Heh-heh, I knew you'd like that!"
Young Audric: "Come on, you bully! Try to catch ME!"
Saw Trooper: "You troublesome boy!"
Jayce: "Father..."
Young Audric: "Will you knock off the 'Father' bit?!"
Jayce: "We have to go back to our own time now. Please, just do me one favor: remember what I told you about the experiment."
Young Audric: "Believe me, I'll remember -- heh, who could forget all this?"
Herc: "Jayce, the weed-heads are all kaput!"
Young Audric (saddened): "Goodbye, Jayce."
Jayce (gently): "Take care!"
Audric (thoughtful): "Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm beginning to think you really ARE..."
Saw Boss: "YOU MORONIC FOOL! Hit Jayce, not Audric! If Audric is destroyed, we will never be created! USE ANOTHER WEAPON! GET THAT BOY!"
Gillian (spell to vaporize a Saw Trooper): "Arringa... lazimbe... shinzu!"
(After Jayce, Flora, and Oon insist on staying with the injured Audric)
Gillian: "You can't change the past. Is this what your father would want, Jayce?"
Audric (moaning and regaining consciousness): "Ohhh...!"
Jayce: "You're right, Gillian. Let's go!"
Young Audric (moaning): "Ohhhhhhh...!"
Blond Student (quietly): "You okay?"
Young Audric: "Hm? Ohhh, have I got a headache! Wow... what happened here?"
Blond Student (disbelieving): "What do you mean, 'what happened?' YOU were here!"
Young Audric: "Well, who did this?"
Blond Student: "Terrible creatures tore up everything, and then some people with high-powered vehicles took them apart!"
Young Audric: "It seems like-like I know, but I-I just can't remember. There's something important I have to do. Something important..."
Herc: "Whoo! That was just a little too close -- even for me!"
Jayce: "I hope Father will remember not to do the experiment."
Gillian: "If that experiment doesn't take place, we won't have to worry about the Monster Minds again!"
(The Pride emerges from the Time Lens to see tons of vines in space)
Herc: "So much for THAT theory. Looks like your old man became a scientist all right, kid, but he did the experiment anyway!"
Jayce: "It also means he's still out there -- looking for us, and for a way to correct a terrible mistake! We'll find him, I KNOW it!"
Herc: "Here come the Monster Minds!"
Jayce: "Lightning Strikes!"
