Underwater, Underpaid
(French Title: "Underwater Life")
The Pride crashed on an unnamed planet. While Jayce and the League vehicles held off the Monster Minds, the others repaired the ship. After Gillian fed an excess of power into it and Herc kicks the console in frustration, everything worked just fine! Jayce and the vehicles returned, and the barge took off.
Then the League passed through a nebula with a force of immense power. Herc tried to get the Pride stabilized. When Flora offered to help, he told her to press any button. Unfortunately, she pressed a button that caused the ship to lurch from side to side. After the barge was finally stabilized, Herc yelled at Flora for the button-pressing incident. Just as the fight threatened to turn ugly, Oon spied something within the nebula, which was apparently shape-changing into different images. When Audric's image appeared, they decided to track down its source.
They emanated from a large lake on a nearby desert planet that the Monster Minds were draining for water. Herc hovered the Pride above the lake while Jayce and Oon dove in for a swim, both of them wearing SCUBA gear. They encountered a kingdom of large sentient fishes, called Exol, who were slowly dying because their home was being drained dry by the Monster Minds. They projected the images as a call for help, using the appearances of people who had visited them before. One of the most recent visitors had been Audric, who had tried to stop the Monster Minds' operations. His aircraft was shot down and sank beneath the lake, where he was forced to escape by using a "teleporter" gun on himself. Jayce swore to the fishes' leader, the Old One, that the League would assist the Exol in ridding themselves of the Monster Minds.
When Jayce and Oon resurfaced, Monster Mind vines did also, grabbing them tight. They escape with the help of the Ring of Light and safely returned to the ship.
Meanwhile, Flora refused to speak to Herc because of the prior incident, declaring him to be "mean, impatient, selfish, and scruffy."
Jayce arrived to outlines his plan: he and Oon would distract the Monster Minds while Gillian took Battle Base into the lake to reverse the enemy's water pumps, leaving Herc and Flora to stay aboard the now-submerged Pride. When the others had gone, Herc apologized to Flora and asked for her help. She forgive him and aided him in plugging the leaks that sprang all over the ship. Jayce's plan worked like a charm; the Monster Minds were swept away in the flood caused by the reversed pumps.
With the thanks of the Exol, the Lightning League flew away in triumph, with Herc allowing Flora to take the helm.
