I'm back with another chapter and don't worry I won't forget the other Digidestined's kids. Thanks a million times over to Helena for the advice. Unfortunately I already started writing One World Away From Darkness before you had a chance to give me the heads up and more advice is very welcome! Also thanks to Dark Qiviut, miricles-3, Catwarrior, and foreverbluegreen for the reviews. You guys are all amazing! Sorry this chapter is kind of short but the next one will be longer!

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon and never will. Enjoy everyone!

Following The Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 3: The Message

Daichi 'Dai' Motomiya

Late that afternoon, a disgruntled Daichi Motomiya found himself seated in the computer room with the rest of Odaiba Elementary's delinquent students. He was seething with anger. "When I get out of here I'm going to kill Ryoko," he muttered to himself. If there was person on the planet that he absolutely could not stand, it was Ryoko Ishida. Normally, he got along with pretty much everyone in the school. That was one of the reasons why he was so popular. Dai was well aware of the fact that he had some less then stellar qualities, but if there was one good thing about him, it was that he treated all his classmates with equal respect. That was why popular and non popular students alike enjoyed being around him, and he in turn, enjoyed being around them. Things like popularity had never mattered to him. He just wanted to be friends with as many people as possible and he never judged. Who am I to judge when I hate being judged myself?

Ryoko, of course, was the exception. Dai hated everything about the blond. To him, Ryoko was nothing but a stuck up, snobby, pampered, spoiled little prince, with an ugly smirk and a bad attitude. The only reason he even put up with him was for Takara, Mickey, and Matty's sake. If it had been up to him, Ryoko would have been kicked out of the group the day he was born! Everything about Ryoko annoyed him, but what bothered him the most was the way Ryoko treated him like a disgusting slug he wanted to step on. Everytime he walked into a room, Ryoko would wrinkled his nose as if he smelled something nasty. The blond always acted as if he, Dai, was nothing more then a stepping stone and it drove Dai crazy. The worst part is I have know idea why. I've never done anything to him and yet he's acted like this since we were little. What in the world is his problem?

"Alright everyone it's four p.m. Time to go home." Mr. Hara's voice broke into Daichi's thoughts and he glanced up at their supervisor for detention. "I better not see any of you in here tomorrow!"

The noise of scraping chairs and loud chatter filled the room. Within seconds, Dai found himself alone in the room and he remained seated. Wincing, he put a hand to his forehead and groaned softly. He could feel the beginnings of a huge headache coming on and it was all Ryoko's fault.

"I hate him," Dai muttered, making a mental note to get revenge on the blond later. Slowly, he stood up and began to pile his books into his bag silently cursing Ryoko, Mrs. Hanari, Mr. Hara, his parents, and pretty much anyone else he could think of. He was definitely not in any hurry to get home and confront two extremely angry parents.

"I guess I can't dely any longer, otherwise they'll be even more mad." Dai sighed and stretched his arms. For the first time since walking in the door, he finally noticed the room around him. He paused to take a closer look, frowning slightly. Usually detention was held down the hallway in one of the regular classrooms, but a chemistry accident (thankfully not one of his, otherwise he'd be in even more trouble) had forced them to locate to another room. The janitor was probably still cleaning up the mess and muttering curses under his breath.

Slowly Dai walked around the classroom taking in it's interior. The other students had certainly run out of the room quick enough; even Mr. Hara. He probably wanted to get home and feed his grumpy old cat that he was fond of more then anything else in the world. None of the students had a clue as to why he cared so much about what had to be the most hateful, ugliest, cat in the city. He was always talking about it like you would a cute little puppy. No wonder he was still a bachelor. Even his neighbours can't stand the thing, imagine having to live with it?

Dai frowned at the computers. Being a sports fan, he was hardly ever in this room except occasionally for class, but something about it today had caught his interest. It didn't look any different then it usually did; at least, he didn't think so. It was just a regular classroom with white walls, chalkboard, uncomfortable chairs, and long tables, but still...there was something different about it today.

A sudden soft sound behind him made Dai jerk around and he expected to see someone walking into the room. There was no one there. "Hello? Is anyone out there?" Dai stepped a little closer to the door, his stomache fluttering nervously. The hallway remained empty and no one answered his call. Was I just imagining things? he started to tremble with unexpected fear and took a step back.

"Alright! Enough playing around!" Dai snapped; he was starting to get angry. "Who's there?" His loud voice filled the room, breaking the silence, and he winced at his own tone; it was shaky and uncertain.

"Ryoko? Is that you?" Rage flared inside him, erasing his fear, and he stalked towards the door. There's no way I'm going to let Ryoko get a good laugh out of frightening me!

"Haven't you done enough damage already!" Dai snapped. "When I get my hands on you, I'm going to kick your-"

Dai poked his head out the door and stopped in mid sentence; the hallway was empty.

"Ryoko?" Still no answer and not a single blond head in sight. He slowly stepped back into the room his fear, once again, beginning to mount. "I thought for sure Ryoko-" he broke off when he realized his voice was trembling.

The silence in the computer room was almost overwhelming. In fact, the whole school appeared to be quiet, too quiet for Dai's liking. Normally there would still be a few students hanging around, but the place seemed empty. A quick glance out the window showed him that the school grounds were empty too. Now that was weird. There should have been at least one of the school's sports teams out there practicing. It wouldn't be the boys soccer team. Dai himself was the captain and their practice wasn't until tomorrow. Where is everyone? That's when he remembered that Takara's soccer practice had been cancelled. At least that was one mystery solved. Still, even with all the kids running out of detention, eager to hang with friends or have supper, there should have a least been some teachers around.

Slowly Daichi walked back towards the computers and stopped short when he realized that one of them was turned on.

"Huh?" Feeling confused, Dai stepped towards it until he was directly facing the screen and scratched his head. That's strange. I could have sworn all the computers had been off, unless one of the other students had turned it on when Mr.Hara wasn't looking. Dai's frown deepened. But that can't be possible. I spent all of detention watching everyone else and no one touched them. I'm sure of it. "Then...how can it be on?" Dai said in confusion. "A computer can't turn itself on!" No one answered back; he had not really expected anyone to.

Curious, Dai leaned forward and studied the screen. It was filled with static...but...that was impossible. Computer screens did not fill with static the way televisions did. The rational part of his brain was telling him he should be very afraid, and yet, for some reason he wasn't. Despite his fear earlier, he felt strangly calm and mildly interested. The screen almost seemed to be pulsing with life. Dai figured he should probably be running for the door right about now, but his feet felt rooted to the tile floor. He would not have been able to move a muscle even if he had tried.

A sudden flash of light lit up the screen and Dai stumbled backwards into a chair with a gasp. His rich dark eyes grew wide with shock. The computer screen was glowing!

"What's going on in here?" Dai whispered to no one in particular. I knew I was coming here for detention, but I hadn't expected something like this!

Dai watched in awed fasination as the screen began to change. Salt and pepper static faded away to reveal a glowing white screen. An odd assortment of zeroes and ones began to scroll down it's surface, and slowly those numbers began to break up reforming into strange letters and sentences.

"Cool!" Dai gasped. Finally the activity on the screen stopped and Dai found himself staring at what looked to be a letter or message of some kind.

"There's something very wrong here," Dai muttered. He could feel it in his very bones. He hit a button on the keyboared, but nothing happened. He stared at the screen in confusion. "What's wrong with this thing?"

Without warning, the computer screen turned black and shut off. Just like that, the message was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. Dai blinked in astonishment. "Okay, this is getting just a little too weird for me," he murmured. There's no way a computer can turn on by itself, much less turn off by itself! Dai tipped his chin up to look at the lights feeling uneasy. Still on. A power surge was out of the question. The lights hadn't even flickered. All of the fear that had been missing earlier came back to Dai in a rush of panic. His hands were clutching the desk and he quickly backed away from the computer. He found himself wanting to get out of the room as soon as possible. Dai turned his head and his eyes happened to fall on the clock. It read four-thirty. Uh oh. He was late; very late.

"My parents!" Dai cried. They're going to kill me! He grabbed his bag and raced out of the room. All thoughts of the computer and Ryoko disappeared from his mind. The only thing he could think about was how his parents were going to freak when he walked through the front door.