Chaos Descending

A Whole Lot of Chaos

Chapter 21 - A Whole Lot of Chaos

Vycandor, as they say, had just thrown down a major gauntlet. He killed it! I had to admit, the song he'd chosen was spot on. Go figure. The Ice Angel singing Ice Ice Baby. It was almost too perfect in my opinion. The only question now was...who's going to be next? Because it sure as hell wasn't going to be me. At least the audience had finally stopped chanting my name.

"Alright, alright, alright," the mystery announcer proclaimed, shining a spotlight on the crowd. "That was pretty good. Pretty good. Is there anyone out there who thinks they can do better?" 

Dalton rushed past me, taking the stairs two at a time. Proudly taking the microphone from Vycandor, he walked to the front of the stage to address the audience. "I know you were probably expecting Chaos. That ain't me honey. But I am a whole lot of chaos. Ain't that right?" The crowd responded with ear deafening cheers and whistles. He gave a twirl that suggested he was enjoying all the attention. "Okay, okay. Calm down. This ain't the Dalton show. Unless you want it to be..." His voice trailed off and the crowd went nuts. Placing a finger over his lips as if to shush them, his eyes locked on mine. He had a look on his devilishly handsome young face like he was about to do something very, very naughty. The kind of look you get when you're about to tell a very big secret. "But, in all seriousness folks, there's something you don't know about Chaos."

I hate when I'm right.

Dalton paused to que the band. Although how they knew which song to play, I didn't have a clue. But you can bet your sweet ass they had a barking chain by the way Skylar laid down a tribal beat on the drums. When the band joined in, I instantly recognized the song. And the intention behind it.

Gee, Dalton sure didn't miss much.

Cloaked by darkness, or attempting to anyway, he pointed down at me standing in the audience as if to pull back the curtain on my hiding place. "Chaos has come to the forest looking for the Wizard. What she doesn't know is...she just found him."

Everything about Dalton changed. It's like I blinked and he performed an instantaneous wardrobe transformation. Gone was the denim jacket and matching skinny jeans. In their place was a full length, sparkly emerald green gown. The same bright green glitter covered his entire face and hands. It was even in his hair. What little you could see of it peeking out from under the oversized top hat he wore, that is. I swear, it looked liked he'd rolled around in a giant bag of glitter.

I thought only angels had access to the big celestial closet in the sky?

Of course, I was just pleased as punch that he'd called me out in front of all these people. If he was trying to goad me into a rap battle, he was going to have to try harder. I didn't plan to cave that easily.

And, in case I had any doubts about Dalton's intentions, the lyrics to the song spoke volumes. Especially when he put his own spin on them. He didn't hold nothing back. Which was kind of the point in a rap battle. But that didn't mean I had to like it.

"Y'all know what time it is!
U better get up off that wall
Is the bus still running?
Chaos, where them monkeys at?
Whatcha gon' do when the house go boom, hey!
Baby give me some elbow room to slay the runway, hey!

U bend over like ur on ur broom
Is u a good witch
Or just a bad bitch
You ain't in Kansas now
All night let me see you get Low - we - oh
Low, hey!
Low - we - oh..."

When the song ended the crowd went positively wild. The announcer's voice came over the loud speakers again. "Okay, okay, okay. Not bad, not bad. Now we're talkin'." A spotlight shown on the audience again. "Anyone think they can top that?" A stunned silence fell over the crowd. "No takers? Then I think it's time to vote." A pool of darkness appeared in the center of the stage,  seemingly out of nowhere. Like a tear in a movie screen and in the next second a man stepped through it. On second thought, scratch that. Not a man, exactly. More like a teenager. He reminded me of a young Eminem, only way cuter. The speaker continued on, mumbling something under his breath. I tried to listen but the voice was too low for me, or anyone else in the audience to understand. "Hang on," the announcer said. "It ain't over 'til it's over. Take it away, Captncyco!"

This time Skylar laid down a funky beat mixed with a heavy back beat from the snare drum. The band joined in as Dalton handed over the microphone. Wearing faded blue baggy jeans and a black graphic T-shirt with a flying dragon design, the Captain sounded as good as any professional musician when he began to drop verses rich with metaphors. His highly improvisational styling technique earned him major musical points with the audience when he changed up the lyrics. Captncyco, or whatever his name was, hadn't come to the forest to play. No. That much was obvious. This, as they say, wasn't his first rodeo.

"Yo, back up now and give the Captain room

The fuse is lit and I'm about to go boom
Mercy, mercy, mercy me
My life is a cage but on stage I'm free
Hyped up, psyched up ready for wil'in'
Standing in a crowd of girls like an island
I see the one I want to hit. Come here you Chaotic beauty
I flip 'em around and then I work that booty
Work the body. Work, work the body!"

"How 'bout that, ya'll?" the announcer said, trying to speak over the roar of the audience. "That right there was some old school rap. Hip Hop 101." This time he shined the spotlight directly on me. "C'mon, Chaos. I know you got somethin' to say!"

Oh, I had something to say alright. What Captncyco hadn't counted on, what none of them had counted on, was the fact that this here rap battle had just officially turned into a Hillbilly Hoedown. And I was about to throw it down in the absolute best way I knew how.

Time to put my big girl panties on.

I casually strolled over to Skylar and whispered in his ear. You know, good old fashioned communication. The kind with lips instead of barks. I'd picked a song called, Can't Hold Me Down by Griz. It was the farthest thing from rap music. Instead, it was actually a gritty sub-genre of music known as "swamp rock." My favorite. The song featured such a rhythmic backbone that, at its loosest, could only be described as funkalicious.

At least, that's what I called it anyway.

Skylar started the song off with a wicked drum roll, followed by Nick who added low, dirty guitar riffs full of reverb. I took a deep breath to gather all of the strength and confidence I could muster and hammered out the vocals, tweaking the lyrics just a tiny bit.

"Catch in the world
If you don't try
For that I live
For that I die
Oh, when times get hard
They can't give in
If you need some help
You got me and my friends
Oh, you gon'
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Can't hold me down
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Oh, he wanna keep me down
He can't hold me down
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
No he can't keep me
The Captain can't keep me down!"

When the song ended, its like you could hear the thousands of people in the crowd cheering, clapping, screaming, and whistling like never before. The announcer had to yell over the sound of the crowd going insane. "Hold up. Hold up. Hold up, ya'll. I think we just got us a new champion!"

I stared at the audience in stunned silence.

Recognizing the victory even when I didn't, Captncyco bowed graciously in defeat. "Well deserved. Well deserved, Chaos. Now how about you and I go someplace quiet where we can talk. The King tells me you need my help."

My eyes were the size of buckets. It took a few failed attempts to find my voice. "Robert?"