o

rescue? Well, I kept one of them. Take a look." Behind the Piper, a TV

monitor embedded in the wall suddenly came of life, showing a closed-circuit

picture of one of the kideens. He was tethered to a wall exactly

like Robin. Twe, half-naked men stood in front of the boy.

"Now as soon as you ask me to stop, those two gentlemen in my employ

will begin using our young friend there as a pung bag. He's in good

shape but he's no Boy Wonder, I don't think he'll last very long. So do we

uand? Good. Now let's begin."

With that, the Piper cocked his left arm and fired a powerful jab

directly into Robin's solar plexus. The blow took him by surprise and

khe wind out of him.

"Yoing to have to do better than that," chuckled the Piper. "Now

tighten your abs and trate."

Robin did as the Piper instructed and tightened his abs. The Piper

began throwis, rights, jabs, and uppercuts into the Boy Wonder's

mid-se. "You're abs are wonderful, everything I hoped they'd be,"

said the Piper. Let's turn it up a notch."

The Piper stepped back slightly and started throwing his full body

weight into every punch. First he'd aim low, at the soft belly just above

Robin's pubis. Pow! Thehrow a cross body punto the meat of

Robin's abs. Wham! Then he's follow up with an uppercut into the solar

plexus, bringing his fist up into Robin's body and lifting the boy off his

feet.

Robin took the punishment silently, trating on holding his

muscles tight to absorb the Piper's blows. But slowly the stant flurry

of puook their toll and Robi his abdominals weakening.

The Piper went to the back wall and picked up a baseball bat. He came

back to Robin and said, "Let's see if this makes an impression." The Piper

swung the bat directly against Robin's abs. The boy bounced off the wall

behind him as every ounce of wind was knocked from his lungs. Gasping for

air, Robin looked up just as the Piper twisted the bat in his hands and

plu like a battering ram directly into Robin's mid-se. This

time, green bile exploded from Robin's lips as the tents of his empty

stomach erupted from the blow.

Smiling, the Piper probed Robin's throbbing abs with his hand. They

were pletely beaten down and soft now, with nth left at

all. The Piper resumed his left/right binations, this time with every

blow taking its toll. Robin desperately tried to su oxygen iween