Unknown...

The man knew he couldn't strike Scarlet's assailant with his katana; He would shoot Scarlet before the katana struck him. The masked man held out his palms in a gesture of peace. "Hold on. This is insanity." He began. He pointed at the man in the car. "Would you really take a life so frivolously?" He aimed his finger at the gun and fired a laser from it in an attempt to disarm him. The laser would be too quick for him to pull the trigger, and would damage the gun beyond use.

Behind the mask the man's jaw dropped. How could he have moved the gun so quickly? He'd have to come up with another plan... The man reared his head back, laughing heartily. "Are you sure you have the right one? Are you willing to take the gamble that the Scarlet you're threatening is not in fact the real Scarlet?" He managed to speak confidently in a tone that would convince a hunter that the bear he was going after was actually a land-walrus. He seized one of his masked clones and removed their mask. Underneath, they were identical to Scarlet. He laughed again. "If you're trying to threaten her to keep me from attacking, wouldn't it be easier to simply shoot me?" Indeed, the speaker was yet another clone. And still another had vanished to slink behind the assailant and Scarlet.

Ivan shakily rose to his feet. He had a strange taste in his mouth and spit to discover the sourse. Blood. He looked up and saw the broken remains of The Wolf. He nearly vomitted at seeing such a sight. Then he rose to his feet and set off for home, remembering the words The Wolf had spoken to drive him into such a rage: "I will win, and when I do your wife will be mine."

Still cloaked in obscurity, the clone behind Scarlet and her kidnapper used one hand to swing his katana down on the man's arm, and the other hand to throw a paralysis dart at his neck. This would (hopefully) work much better than his other two failed plans.

Ivan crept silently through the house. He had already checked it thoroughly, only to find that Scarlet was nowhere to be found. He was immediately overwhelmed with a sense of dread.

The clone sighed in relief, becoming visible. He held his katana over the man's body and turned to Scarlet, lifting his mask for her to read his lips. "Give the command and I shall kill him." He instructed. "Surely you do not want such a threat to live on."

Ivan was in a cold sweat. He had changed his nose into a wolven snout and caught Scarlet's scent. His lower half became the body of a horse, giving him the appearance of a centaur with a wolf snout. He galloped quickly, heading toward Scarlet.

The man reluctantly nodded. "As you wish, but ask yourself this: What's worse; Guilt or Fear?" Leaving Scarlet with this, he and a pair of other clones lifted the man and leapt through the air, seeming to vanish.

Ivan arrived, feverish and wild-eyed. He stopped and surveyed the scene; A broken car, a discarded gun... It appeared as though he had arrived too late to help with the struggle. Using one strong arm, he lifted Scarlet onto his back. "Let's go home." He said, relieved that Scarlet was still alive. "You can tell me all about what happened... Unless of course you'd rather not." Ivan's wolf snout became his nose once again as he trotted home.