“It Was as Empty of Life as a Scarecrow's Pockets.” [Crane]

[Deleted]

    Tim took a deep breath as he pulled on his black domino mask. He walked across the large cave towards his motorcycle. The sound of his footsteps echoed through the dark cavern. Tim had been troubled for the past few days. Bruce had been out of Gotham for a few months. He left it to Dick and Tim for a few months while he went to "find himself". And now Bruce was coming back again and becoming the self proclaimed hero again. For some reason it had really been bothering Tim. It seemed strange that Dick and Tim should take care of Gotham for months alone then Bruce just comes back and pretends none of that ever happened. He just didn't think it was right.

    Tim sat on the motorcycle and turned the ignition. He sped out of the cave and began making his rounds. Nothing to crazy was happening. Obviously a few muggers, thiefs, normal stuff. Robin stopped them and continued going along on his rounds. After Tim had finished his rounds he bought himself a coffee and sat down at Robinson Park. He began to think things over. It was late at night, so there wasn't anyone else there. Scarecrow had escaped from Arkham a while ago, and him and Dick hadn't been able to catch him. Tim went on thinking about the Scarecrow situation until a strange feeling of some one watching him. He jumped up and looked around him. Nothing. Everything was perfectly still. As Tim observed that it was still, a quote from the book The Big Sleep popped into his head.

"It was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets"

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Where do you find a child in Gotham city? It wasn’t very difficult even if you weren’t trying. Among the filthy streets of the inner city you could find places thick with them. The local orphanage was a good place to find children, as in Gotham there sometimes were more children than actual parents still living together. But Dr. Crane didn’t think the process needed to happen that way for survival regardless. Reproduction could be used for exactly what it needed to be, the rest of the “romance” surrounding it was just a product of their fears…As was reproduction for that matter. The fear of losing one’s sense of belonging on earth….The need to leave a mark behind on the planet. It was all for nothing.

But Dr. Crane didn’t go out this night looking for any regular children. Children in the orphanages wouldn’t go out at night, children with their parents wouldn’t be allowed to go out at night and homeless children would stay away from the park at night. No, He was looking for a specific child. But how does one look for a child when you don’t even know their name? Fortunate for the doctor this child made it easy for him.

He still has not known exactly why Edward had given him this task of capturing the boy for him but it wasn’t his job to ask and he didn’t particularly care. Edward was no doubt up to one of his large schemes again. He would admit it was fascinating to watch Edward work as he put so much detail into every curve of his plans. His problem was he planned incredibly too tightly and that meant he couldn’t make a mistake and no one else could either.

Dr. Crane would never go so ill prepared for the worst, in fact he depended upon it. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It was better to start with a beginning, have an end and let the rest fall as it will. That was why tonight he had come prepared to stalk a bird. He had come fully dressed in costume, his mask already fastened over him but he hadn’t let turned on the fans on the light so he could stay in the dark. The Scarecrow watched the child he was told to pick up, he had been watching him for some time, but tonight was the night he was going to see the truth.

He dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a silver canister. He pushed the button on the side, which seemingly did nothing before he rolled it out onto the sidewalk and let it tumble to the boys feet. While it lay there inactive, the Scarecrow made his way up behind him.