As the shadow formed and began to cushion his blow, reducing the impact force to less than half of what it would have been otherwise, Bloodshot had to give the kid credit. He could think a lot faster than most people these days. The blow still struck though, and before the mercenary could recover to unleash another the shadows around the man began to twist and deform, growing and taking on new shapes. Just out of curiosity, Bloodshot brought his gun up and fired a round into the roiling mass of darkness with little effect. Kinda what he figured would happen.<br/><br/>He didn't stand still while the other man continued to grow, and by the time the shadows began reaching for him he was standing nice and cozy between the beaming headlights of two cars further out in the street (who the hell leaves their headlights on in the middle of the day?). The shadows were reaching regardless, until a series of dull thumps followed by a series of explosions of light and sound heralded the arrival of a new combatant. Bloodshot's mask compensated for the detonations as they occurred, and he quickly located the source of the blasts. It was a man, dressed in a black skintight unitard, whose skin seemed to glow from the veins beneath it. Naturally, the first thought that popped into Bloodshot's head was the same one that would no doubt pop into any other head upon beholding this unnatural sight.<br/><br/>"Where the<span style="font-style: italic">hell</span>did he pull those flash-bangs from?"<br/><br/>He didn't stop to dwell on the conundrum though, as the evil dragon o' darkness would no doubt think to get rid of the cars before too long, and bolted further away from the monster that now sat perched atop the bank. Unfortunately, this course brought him closer to the glowy dude on the telephone pole, who had just spit lightning at the dragon and was now delivering an ultimatum. Bloodshot skidded to a halt in a beam of sunlight just out of sight of the dragon (behind an ice-cream truck), and very nearly gaped at the blue-headed man. At the very least, his eyebrows rose beneath the mask. Apparently, whoever this guy got his intel from needed to be shot. Not only was Bloodshot's armor not made of metal, it was also just about as non-conductive as you can get.<br/><br/>A chuckle emanated from the mask before Bloodshot raised his arms in a "give it your best shot" gesture and spoke. "If you think you've got what it takes, Glowstick, then go for it." The fact that the man had an employer who wanted Bloodshot alive hadn't escaped his notice any more than the bird-lady floating around the edges of the fight had, and his mind began processing the information almost of its own accord. Bloodshot himself had been hired by P.B.L.E., so it wasn't them, which only left a couple dozen enemies who no doubt wanted revenge for past atrocities committed. He could work it out later. Right now he had four metas to deal with who apparently hadn't caught onto the fact that they're not all on the same team.