There were three things Lazerback learned in the year which passed. One; Shockwave was somehow both a genius and a fool. Two; Predaking's continued existence rankled him to such ferocity that he almost broke cover to take it out on the prey. Three, which tied into two; he hated this demeaning labour work. Shockwave had made someone for the job of doing the hard lifting, and yet he was stuck doing the work suited for those lesser Predacons.

It was all for the plan though. Taking Ripclaw from Predaking would be sweet, and the taste of his energon would be even more so, but true delight was going to be throwing that wolf's corpse at Predaking's pedes because how dare he continue living. Circuit and Skystalker had the decency to die like the trash they were, and soon it would be Predaking's turn.

Lazerback just needed to wait it out, and keep doing all of Shockwave's dirty work. He hefted a cable over his shoulder and trekked back to the laboratory. "I found what you asked for." He said smoothly.

The scientist didn't bother to turn around from his work station. Lazerback sneered at him with no repercussions. "Bring it here, and then check on the status of the clones."

'Always clones with you.' Lazerback thought, but grudgingly did as he was told. He walked further into the laboratory until he reached the room with five incubation chambers. Colors had just started appearing on three of them, but his optic ridges rose when he noticed two of the clones had two sets of heads. 'What was he thinking when he picked these fossils?'

Lazerback picked up the datapad and scribbled down the information when he noted it hadn't been done so yet. Perhaps it was a good thing Shockwave kept trying to redo the same experiment countless times. If he actually tried something else, it was going to be harder to plan for. 'Good thing he's not spontaneous or this might actually be a challenge.'

The door slid close behind him, but his optics narrowed when he got back to the main lab. Shockwave working on a console, and a familiar figure was silhouetted on the screen. Lazerback kept the growl from entering his voice as he asked, "Why are you looking through Predaking's records," he paused, and begrudgingly added, "Master?"

Shockwave finally looked at him, optic cycling before turning around to the screen. With a single click, the silhouette was parted to one side, while the mech's CNA was on the other end. "I have been working out the necessary steps to clone Predaking with further degradation of his already modified CNA."

Lazerback narrowed his optics. He held no loyalty to anyone, and the original Predaking least of all-but this was surprising. "You…are using the CNA from…Predaking? You're planning to create a clone from…a clone?" He could not supress his incredulity. "Forgive my impudence, Master, but does it not take less resources to simply use the original for cloning?" Never mind the fact he hated this idea.

"Another clone of the original Predaking would not possess this current one's memories." Shockwave said calmly. "It will be crucial in maintaining control over it."

'So it's back to Ripclaw then.' Shockwave did not have to say it, because he'd been transparent about it so far. Perhaps it was the purple mech's pride or to keep his specimen 'pure' that he did not simply make a clone of Ripclaw. Then again, cloning Ripclaw would defeat the entire purpose of having a true-blue Predacon.

Lazerback leaned back on his pedes. "So, Master, how shall I be of assistance with this…new brother?"

"You will reaffirm what it's purpose is to be; capturing Ripclaw and returning him here." Shockwave said.

'Of course, you are nothing if not predictable.' Lazerback thought. "I understand, though I don't see how I'm to keep him from turning since Predaking left to chase after Ripclaw."

"I will modify the clone's memories, distort them and you will make it believe it was the prototype I first created."

"And that Predaking is the cloned cast-off." Lazerback finished. Grudgingly, he found it to be an intriguing idea. Getting this new clone to kill Predaking would cheat him of his desire to do it himself, but Lazerback would just need to adjust his plans. He fought back a smirk. 'And Shockwave is just handing me a pawn of my own.'