Wow, typed in a big explanation and my cookie expired. Sorry for this short one, but I need to get to work. I just lost 20 minutes of typing for some stupid security feature. Looks like 2 other people have made posts since I lost my work, sorry if I say something that has already been said, or if I am vague.
Here is the file I made for you :
dl.dropbox.com/u/1660874/scale.capx
in a nutshell, you spawn the sprite, have it set angle to Target.X and the Target.Y then you scale it until it hits the target. After it hits, then simply destroy it, or have it wait a split second and destroy.
Put the origin on the far left of the sprite to set the scale point. Have it scale while it is on screen. Have it destroy once it collides with target.