Sam had started bristling at the word "sidekick," but Rich's rebuttal was all it took to put the grin back on his face as he kept the pressure on, giving Prime a few dozen more things to think about on top of trying to deal with Rich's attacks. His onslaught wasn't as strong as Rich's, but it was busier, more of a distraction meant to help give Rich more openings to deliver the real whammy.

"Nobody can really make anybody do anything. Doesn't every teenager know that?"

Maybe there'd been pressure, or some weird circumstances, but it was never a matter of no choice that led people to do things like this. It was a matter of a bad choice or a worse outcome. His father's dilemma didn't make Sam miss school or land himself in trouble; he just decided that the trouble and the suspensions were worth finding him. Moffet had never made him get detention with all of those fights; Sam just decided that detention was worth getting a punch in instead of taking it quietly.

Whatever Prime thought the heroes of other worlds had done to make him throw in with these guys, Sam wasn't buying it for a second.

"Just make this easy and give up. Seriously. Did your comic books show you Rich when he gets mad? Because Annihilus sure ain't around to tell you about it."