I had a go. This isn't actually the effect I was going for but I think it's kind of cool. This is very much a work in progress (messy event sheet) but it might give you ideas.
lightningTest.capx (r114)
If you just want a single bolt, disable event 8.
I have been working with your recursive algorithm, its very cool. It has only one big problem, it drops fps drastically =S I tweaked it a little to improve performance but it still drops the fps to 45 in a high end computer.
Its still a nice effect but I havent found a solution to the fps drop =/