A/N: When I first started writing this story nigh on three years ago, all I knew about BlackGatomon was a general appearance from looking at various images on DA, thinking it to be a fanmade Digimon. I knew nothing about its level or abilities. As such, you'll find the BlackGatomon this story is named for is much different than any other BlackGatomon, and I assure you an explanation to cover my errors will come in time.

Also, while this is a Digimon fanfic, it doesn't share a continuality with any of the anime seasons, although there will be a scattering of references.

PROLOUGE

There is a place, another dimension parallel to our own, known as the Digital World. Within this world live creatures known as Digimon, ranging in level from Baby to Mega, and they come in forms that are as varied as the species of insects and plants that populate the Real World.

In a time past, several children and young teenagers were pulled into the Digital World by means of many copies of a small handheld computer known as a Digivice, and each one became friends and partners with his or her own unique Digimon.

That was over six years ago. The children and Digimon since then have constructed several towns, some of which have grown into cities, all across the Digital World. Both inside and outside their borders, humans and Digimon coexisted in relative peace. There were one or two small occasions where some evil Digimon attempted to seize the world within their evil grip, but each of them was foiled when the citizens banded together to confront them, unlocking extraordinary secrets in the process.

Humans and Digimon shall unite in battle again, assembling a team from across the Digital World to compete against all existence's most unusual evil…

CHAPTER 1

Eric laughed as he kicked the soccer ball to his Digimon friend, Elecmon. Eric was seven years old when he arrived in the Digimon World. Now he was thirteen, just short of five feet tall, had light brown hair and green eyes, and wore a pair of large goggles on his head. Today, his clothes consisted of a chalk blue polo shirt and yellow shorts. Blue sneakers covered the white socks on his feet.

Elecmon looked like a large red mammal with purple stripes. He stood on all fours like the animal he was. He hit the ball back by butting it with his forehead. "Nice shot!" he shouted as the ball returned.

"Thanks," Eric said as he caught the ball with his foot. "You're not bad, either."

As Eric kicked it back, a voice rang across the small field surrounded by suburban spread. "Hey, Eric!"

Eric turned after making his shot. His older brother Robert was running up to him. Robert was three years older than him, making him sixteen, and loved video games. He had a darker brown for hair and also had green eyes. On his shoulders was a navy blue rain jacket he always had on in public like a sort of cape, the arms bouncing behind him as he ran. Under the jacket was an orange shirt bearing a picture of a lit blue bomb with a jagged mustache and wide grin on the chest. Around his legs was a pair of tan pants, and white sneakers around his feet. Next to him was Deramon, a large blue bird Digimon wearing a shiny crown and with a green bush for a tail about one and a half the main body's size.

"Hey, bro!" Eric said, waving, as Elecmon hurried to stand next to him.

Robert and Deramon caught up to them. "Where have you been, man?" the sixteen-year-old said in his somewhat fake-tough-guy voice. "Amanda and I've been worried sick about you."

"We have searched almost all of Digitopolis trying to confirm your location," Deramon added in a regal voice very much unlike his partner's.

"Boy, are you steamed," Eric replied.

"You know how big Digitopolis is," Robert replied. "I just don't want you to be lost, is all. Besides, it's getting late. We better get back home."

"Oh all right…" Eric complied in a somewhat pouting fashion as he picked up the ball, "Let's go, Elecmon."

They walked off the dirt field and down the street. The sun was just an hour or two short of beginning to set. Buildings of various sizes and colors lined the side of the street.

"Boy, the days keep getting shorter," Eric commented.

"Yeah," Robert replied as he pulled his jacket in a little closer. "Dang winter. I hate the cold."

OoOoO

In the downtown area just to the north of Robert and Eric, Digitopolis was a century and a half ahead of human technology. Skyscrapers towered over the area, constructed out of sleek, metallic, futuristic curves. Digimon of all types, although few were above Champion, walked the roads, getting where they wanted to go and buying what they wanted to buy from the various shops that lined the roads.

Amanda Jameston was nine years old when she entered the Digital World. Now she was fifteen and gorgeous. Many of her features, including her long ebony hair, purple eyes, long eyelashes, slender figure and curvy form, made her very attractive. She wore a purple shirt that extended only halfway down her torso to show her slender midriff. On her hip she wore some short jeans; the thought of wearing a skirt was very appalling to her. Her purple sneakers complimented her eyes and shirt.

She placed some Digidollars on the counter of a small noodle shop run by a Digitamamon. The giant egg was apparently satisfied with the bills and placed six take-out containers of freshly boiled ramen on the counter in place of the money.

"Six containers of streaming hot ramen to go, as ordered," Digitamamon said.

"Thank you very much," Amanda thanked in her rebellious-angel voice as she started to pick up the containers one by one.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Digitamamon asked. His worries were well founded; each container was five inches high. Even with two piles of three, that would still somewhat block her range of vision.

"I already got help," Amanda replied as she passed three of the containers over to her Floramon friend. Floramon was a plant Digimon that looked like a large red flower with roots for legs. Both of her arms bore a purple flower each on the ends instead of hands.

"Stamen Rope!" Floramon exclaimed as she extended the stamens from each of her purple flowers so they moved like ropes in midair, wrapping around the three containers she was passed.

"Much obliged, Floramon," Amanda complimented as she held the other three containers in her arms and began to head off.

"You're welcome!" Floramon replied in her cheerful and a-little-too-loud voice as she followed.

OoOoO

Robert, Eric, and Amanda lived in a small apartment in the south side of Digitopolis. It was rather ordinary as apartments go. Its kitchen was half an extension of the main room, and the two beds were fold-out. At least there was cable, and the RedVeggiemon that ran the complex only charged a few hundred Digidollars a month.

Robert and Eric entered, followed by Deramon and Elecmon. Both kicked their shoes off and left them in the doorway. They had been doing it for four years, but it was still strange to them. They did it for their lease's sake; RedVeggiemon insisted on it so they wouldn't ruin the furniture.

"I'm hungry," Eric said for the fifth time since Robert found him.

"For the fifth time," Robert groaned as he hung his jacket on a nearby hook, "Amanda will be back with dinner soon enough."

Eric groaned. "'Soon enough' is never soon enough…"

Deramon moved to a chair by a small side table with a board game on it and sat down. "C'mon, Robert, just a quick game."

"Deramon, we've already played that game four times today," Robert reminded him, "three of those within the fifteen minutes just before we left to get Eric."

"Aw, c'mon!" Deramon begged, a pair of dice jumping in his hand as he shook them.

Robert signed. "Fine," he said, somewhat annoyed. "One game, but that's it." He took the chair opposite Deramon. "I'll take the red pieces."

"Blue as usual for me," Deramon said joyously. "Let's play!"

On the other side of the apartment, Eric and Elecmon were trying to watch TV, sitting together on the couch while channel surfing with a remote control. However, it was just his luck he couldn't find even one thing to watch.

"Over six hundred channels and nothing's on," he griped.

"That looks interesting," Elecmon said, only to be followed by "No wait, it's a commercial."

"A ha!" Robert shouted on the other side of the room. "Back three spaces you go!"

"A minor setback, nothing more," Deramon said as he moved his piece back. "I'm feeling lucky!"

"The picture's getting fuzzy," Elecmon said to Eric. "Could you reach over and adjust the antenna, please?"

"The show's so bad, it actually looks better this way," Eric replied.

Elecmon looked again. "Yeah, it actually does."

"Back to start you go! Sorry!" Robert cried as he moved one of Deramon's pieces back to the start.

Deramon was very upset. "You're cheating, I know it!"

"Play the game, little birdy," Robert replied, sounding like he was getting into it.

"Hey, bro!" Eric called over. "The TV's broken!"

Robert looked up. The entire TV screen was covered in snow. "Try watching another channel," he suggested. "RedVeggiemon sometimes cuts a wire by accident when he gets upset."

Eric flipped a few channels. "All the channels are out!" he reported.

"Hmm…" Robert muttered. He stood up, walked over, and looked behind the TV.

"Is that a forfeit?" Deramon shouted across the apartment.

"No, it isn't," Robert shouted back. He pulled his head out, looked over the entertainment center, and played with the antenna a bit. The picture didn't improve in the slightest. "Nothing's wrong with the equipment from what I can tell," he reported, "Must be a problem with the station."

"Hey, something's appearing on the screen!" Elecmon called out.

Everyone looked; Deramon even hurried over. Something was coming into focus on the screen. Something black. Very black.

OoOoO

As Amanda and Floramon walked through the central plaza of Digitopolis, they looked around at the sights. In the center of the large circular clearing was a large statue of pure steel, depicting one of the three saviors of the Digital World, Seraphimon. The large angel-like figure stood in a heroic pose.

Amanda slowed down her walking pace so she could gaze at the statue. Everyone had his or her secrets, and she had one she had never disclosed to even Floramon, one that statue reminded her of.

"Every time we walk through here, we slow down," Floramon stated. "The ramen's going to get cold!"

Amanda acknowledged her friend with a small sound, then turned away from the statue and resumed her normal walking speed.

The other feature that separated the plaza from the rest of downtown was the 154" Digitron TV set perched atop one of the buildings. This gigantic plasma screen, along with several 100" sets set up around downtown, served as a sort of visual PA system. Usually, they displayed simple two-frame animated advertisements like electronic billboards, although they acted quite well as an emergency broadcast system.

One thing that was never seen on the Digitron system from their creation to now was static, like the kind Floramon noticed and pointed out to Amanda.

The ad for Gazimon hair gel faded from view as snow coated the screen. All over the city, similar things happened to all the screens in the Digitron system, each one perfectly identical to the central screen.

"Those sets have failed in the past," Amanda commented with a slight hint of fear, "but never all at once." Everyone in the downtown area was looking at the fuzzy screens, wondering what had happened to cause this, nervous mutterings emerging from the massive throng.

Slowly then, the snow began to clear up to display an image of someone black. Very black.

The image quality was restored within ten seconds. The figure whose upper half appeared on the screen resembled a Gatomon with a mixed-up color scheme. The yellow was replaced by a blood red, the purple by an ocean-like blue. The eyes were red to match, and the fur was as black as midnight.

"Do not adjust your sets," the figure spoke, his voice booming across the city. "There is nothing wrong with your television. I am BlackGatomon, and I declare myself now and forever the undisputed dictator of the Digital World!"

Small gasps were heard all over, one of which was Floramon's, causing her to drop one of the ramen containers, which thankfully landed upright and unharmed.

"Resistance is futile," BlackGatomon boomed. "Those that will not serve me will perish. Over the next few weeks, I will travel to every town or city in the Digital World to negotiate terms of surrender, so I suggest you get ready beforehand. Long live BlackGatomon!"

The picture cut in another flurry of static before the advertisements returned as if nothing had happened.

Everyone was stunned for several moments before they continued as if nothing had happened either.

Floramon then noticed the dropped ramen container and picked it back up and dusted the dirt off.

"This looks bad," Amanda said to her friend, "We better get back to the apartment and tell the others."

They jogged out of the plaza. At that time, a large rain cloud came in over the city and began to drizzle. All the non-plant and non-water Digimon took cover under the awnings and inside buildings. The drops that fell on the Seraphimon statue flowed down his face like tears.

OoOoO

The picture cut in another flurry of static before the show returned as if nothing had happened. As Eric turned off the TV with the remote, rain began to drizzle outside, the drops audible on the sliding glass door leading to the small balcony.

"When rain follows something like that," Robert stated, "it's rarely a good sign."

"The TV looks fine to me!" Deramon shouted as he darted back to the board game. "Hurry up and get back over here so we can finish playing! I know I can win this time!"