A box.

They had been left out, alone, in a box. Like a litter of free kittens open to anyone who wanted to give them a home. In an old, run-down, beat up box. They were left there inside an alley, which in any place was not a high recommendation, but in Gotham it was murder without getting your hands dirty. Four infant children slept on through the down pour of rain and the crashing of lightning. They were certainly odd children, not a hint of normality other than perhaps their peacefulness, which wasn't common in Gotham anyhow, even for a sleeping child. They were marked by sticky notes, each had one plastered to their chests, the scribbled ink hardly visible after the rain had gotten to it.

It just so happened that someone was hurrying home at that instant, however that someone was not a person that the four small children would want the attention of. But how were they to know this? As the "someone" rushed into the alley he skidded a bit, causing a scraping echo along the stone-walled alleyway. The echo pierced the ears of the child labeled "Spade" and she woke immediately crying out to the night. It was this cry that made the man stop in his tracks as he stepped over the soggy box. Normally this person in particular would've continued on his way without so much as a backward glance. But that wasn't anything new, considering that's what most people would've done. Perhaps it was just that kind of thinking that stopped Jonathan Crane, more commonly known as "The Scarecrow."

To any bystander Jonathan in his current state would seem a normal person. He was rather tall, towering above most people, and to add to this he was also incredibly thin. So thin, that most thought he'd be practically invisible if you looked at his from the side. His auburn hair hid his dark eyes with the way they dipped over his face. He was not the most handsome by anyone's means, including his own, but considering he was one of Gotham top professional criminals and generally wore a mask anyhow, he didn't see how it mattered.

Jonathon instinctively scooped up the bawling child and rocked her back and forth in his arms. He glanced around nervously, knowing that the all-knowing all-seeing batman couldn't be far behind him, and this child wasn't doing anything for his cover.

Immediately the girl silenced herself, content in scarecrows arms. He sighed. Goodness he thought to himself now she's comfortable. And so she was, and went so far as to prove her point, for as soon as Scarecrow set her beside her what were most likely siblings, she began to whine again. He hadn't even all together placed her back in the box when he had to scope her up again, in case the bat heard. "what am I supposed to do with you?" he asked the child, almost expecting an answer. He evaluated the situation. Of course he could very simply leave the child there with the rest of them, and walk on by like nothing had ever happened… but something nagged at him from the inside. That little voice that never left him alone. Come now, it whispered you wouldn't abandon these children? Surely Crane, you of all people know what it's like to feel abandon? Lost and forgotten? Or do you really want another Scarecrow on your hands in twenty years?

Jonathon grimaced. Holding the child tight he began to make way for his old run down apartment, but just as he was to leave, another cry shortly followed, this one louder than before. He sharply turned, skulking back to the box. "What now?" he whispered. Another one of the children, this one with the label "Diamond" was crying with ferocious intensity, as if she wanted Scarecrow to be caught.

"Hush! Shh! Oh… Do be quiet!"

His last sentence was practically yelled, and the child silenced herself. Scarecrow then would've sworn on the holy bible (not that it mattered much to him anyhow) that the child then stuck her tongue out at him. What an attitude, and at such a young age! He sighed, knowing now he couldn't leave the four of them there, though he denied that it was because he was growing soft. As he placed the girl in his arms back beside her box-mates, grabbed the slowly falling apart cardboard excuse for a box and sobered back to his apartment, he told himself that this was only temporary because if they were left out here, in too short of a while Gotham would have four new super villains on it's hands.

And The Scarecrow hated competition.