Bruce: 40

Dick: 22

Lillian: 18

Jason: 15

Losing Jason Part One

"That's what I've been trying to tell you Richard!" I sighed exasperatedly into the phone. I had been on the phone with Dick for a good twenty minutes repeating the same thing. Jason had gone missing last night after patrol. "He was supposed to come directly home, while Batman and Batgirl stayed to deal with some other stuff. When we got home, Alfred said Jace hadn't come in yet. Bruce and I were out half the night looking for him. We thought he might be laying low somewhere overnight but Gotham Academy called this morning asking Alfred if Jason would be old sick the rest of the day. The three of us have exhausted all of our brains trying to come up with possible solutions." I paused to listen to Dick's response, rolling my eyes when he began to whine. "I already explained why Bruce won't call you Dick. He doesn't want to admit that he needs your help...You know what, here talk to Alfred!" I exclaimed handing my cellphone off to the butler who had innocently walked into the kitchen.

"Hello?" He questioned the person on the other end. "Oh hello Master Dick." He paused, listening to Dick. "Yes Miss Lillian seems to have covered just about everything. I think that your help would greatly be appreciated by Miss Lillian and Master Bruce...very well we, shall see you then." Alfred hung up the phone before pressing it into my hand. "Master Dick said he'd be right over."

"I don't believe it! I spend twenty minutes talking to him and it's like a brick wall, 30 seconds with you and he's coming right over!" Alfred shrugged in response. "I'm going to help Bruce downstairs. Just send Dick down when he gets here." I didn't even make it to the cave before my cell was buzzing in my hand.

"Hello?" I answered expecting it to be Dick.

"Lillian." A gruff voice spoke on the other end. Bruce. "I need you to come downstairs." The phone clicked and the line went dead before I had a chance to answer. I ran downstairs to see Bruce settled behind the bat-computer where hundreds of video clips flashed all at once.

"What is all this?" I asked as my eyes darted around, unable to focus on one flashing screen long enough.

"They're commercials." Bruce informed me.

"Commercials?" I repeated. "What's that have to do with Jace?"

"I was getting to that." His Batvoice snapped back. "Each of these commercials has a quick flash at the beginning or end."

"And that would mean?"

"I'm not sure exactly." He frowned. "I started looking for clues that might lead us to Jason' whereabouts. Naturally I checked the news first, but these commercials with the flashes kept showing up. In every network, on every channel, even a few internet adds. What I don't know is if they are all the same image or piece of the same image or even a video."

"Well who can we call who can figure that out? Maybe a certain computer-whizz slash acrobat who also happens to be your eldest son? Sometimes goes by the name of Nightwing. Sometimes..."

"I get your point Lil." He barked. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved a heavy sigh. "As much as I hate to admit it, I think your right. This is right up Dick's alley. I'll call him." Bruce reached down for his cellphone but a voice at the top of the stairs stopped him.

"No need, I'm already here!" Dick was grinning from ear to ear as he raced down the steps. He tossed the duffle bag he had been carrying to the ground at the base of the steps. "Now what's right up my alley?"

"You called him?" Bruce glared up at me completely ignoring Dick for the moment.

"Technically yes, but Alfred's the one who talked him into coming!" I burst. Throwing Alfred's name into things usually got Dick, Jason and I out of the worst situations.

"What does it matter?" Dick questioned after a silent beat between Bruce and I. "I'm here now and I want to help."

Bruce's jaw was set, and I could tell he was still mad at Alfred and I for calling Dick. But he turned instead to glare at the monitor. While Bruce explained the situation to Dick I tried to think of similarities between the commercials, but as Bruce had pointed out there were no apparent correlations.

"They're Easter Eggs." Dick exclaimed suddenly causing Bruce and I to look at him funny.

"Easter Eggs like the colored ones we used to make with Alfred as kids?"

"No." Dick shook his head. "Like a digital Easter Egg. They're mostly used by game developers and web designers. An Easter Egg is digital content hidden inside of other digital content. Watch." Dick reached down and snatched the keyboard from under Bruce's hands. He then opened a new internet browser page and pulled up Google. Bruce and I exchanged a confused look as we watch him type "do a barrel roll" into the search bar before pressing enter. On cue the Google webpage flipped and turned itself as if it were literally performing a barrel roll.

"What was that?" Bruce questioned as he jabbed a finger at the screen.

"That's an Easter Egg." Dick answered now grinning. "And I think we might be able to solve this one you've got here. The first part is going to be splicing those flashes of images from the main commercial video. Then we'll have to look at the flashes and to see if they have to be reattached to each other or..." Dick and Bruce launched into a very rapid very techno-savvy conversation about Easter Eggs and video splicing and who knows what. I left them in the cave and began my own quest for Alfred. He was in the kitchen, I should have known, Alfred was always in the kitchen.