The earth portal was dizzying and offsetting. When the last had walked through, they expected most of the others to have recovered, but a few of them were still shaking their heads and rumbling their temples. Techno and Philza seemed only slightly affected, having gone through the portal plenty of times on vacation and gotten used to it.

George felt no effect whatsoever as most of the others had headaches around him, and he smirked towards Philza and Techno, rolling his eyes at the weaklings.

Bad fell onto the ground, just like the first time around, but at least hadn't gone full on unconscious again. George suspected the human form helped with that, but Skeppy's hand entangled in his own could also be a viable explanation.

Techno returned a nod of approval, while Philza shook his head and went to help the worst of them up.

Ant and Red recovered quickly, arms looped together. From traveling, they had probably gotten used to traveling between portals at least somewhat. Then Velvet immediately started to complain.

"It never gets easier! Why is Earth the worst one-"

"Ok so you're ranking them now? I thought your strategy was to drink water and try to ignore the pain." Ant said.

"Yeah well Earth happens to be the fucking worst one to go through apperantly, isn;t that hard to rank it." Velvet whined.

"Language-" Looked like Bad was up now too, and Skeppy next to him.

George rolled his eyes at the others and decided to start being productive.

"Alright Dreamy, where did you run off to-" George thought. He assumed it would most likely be in the same direction that Dream had gone the first time, considering he really seemed to be heading towards somewhere, but he still needed the actual direction relative to where they were right now.

"oH MY FUCKING HELL-" Sounded like the child was up now. Tubbo was leaning on a tree and shaking his head, at least quieter about his dizziness. George had talked to Tommy only a few times, but that was plenty enough to get the nickname of "Gogy" from him, which plenty of other friends liked to call him too. In short, he was annoying- and loud.

George typed in a few things on his tracker, and immediately picked up the energy signals of the group around him. He also got the pin he had given to Tubbo on the tracker automatically, which he admitted he had forgotten about temporarily. There were two dots for Tubbo now, his crystal, and the tracker pin.

"Philza was it-?" George asked, striding up to the green striped hat wearer.

"Yes mate, need something?"

"Yeah- that tracker I gave you. I need to set it up so it actually tracks everything. It'll be helpful if we somehow split up."

Phil nodded and fished it out of his bag, handing it over carefully.

"If you could round the crystal holders up so I can label the dots-?" George asked, too lazy to finish his sentence when Philza got the overall idea.

"Sure."

Everyone was back to normal now, headaches and dizziness subsided as they took the time to evaluate their surroundings. It only took a few minutes for George to finally label all of the signals on both trackers and hand one back to Philza.

"So where's Dream?" Sapnap asked bluntly.

George sighed. "It's going to take a minute or two for it to find them. They're farther, meaning it needs to scan the area, which takes time."

Sapnap grumbled, but kept his mouth shut.

"Seems like he's trying to control his temper this time." George noted, and then focused his attention back to the screen.

"Well while we have time," Philza started, getting everyone's attention, "Tubbo, I think you need to explain some things to the whole group."

"What?" Tubbo asked, titling his head.

"You're theory- not everyone here knows it." He said, nodding with his head to certain people in the crowd. Tubbo had no idea who he was pointing to.

Tubbo looked at the group, not really remembering who knew and who didn't. Tommy knew- and everyone in the cafe knew too- but who else was there? He gave up and shook his head, explaining it all to everyone was the easiest anyway.

Everyone was staring at Tubbo, and George noticed him taking a breather before releasing his tight fist. George glanced at the trackpad. He already knew the theory, so he didn't need to hear it again. But part of him felt he needed to. Needed to know that this was the explanation they were going with- and needed to know that it was cureable.

The trackpad still only had the colored dots of the group. Not that he could see half the colors himself, but he figured it would be helpful for the others.

"Where are you, Dream?"

He wasn't really thinking about location.

Tommy shot Tubbo a thumbs up, while Sam and Ponk just looked confused.

"Dream- and all of the others we are looking for- are possessed by void demons." Tubbo spoke clearly as he scanned the sea of faces. "Me and Fundy have data that matches with an earlier study, and we'll find a cure, so right now we just need to find and catch them so they can't hurt anyone." He said.

"What? Void demon-" Sam said softly. "No, aren't those just a myth?"

"I didn't want to believe it either-" Sapnap said, "-but that's all we have to get Dream back."

Sam had a conflicted expression, looking between the others, who all nodded or avoided eye contact.

Ponk put his hand on Sam's arm carefully.

"You- you know void demons are?" Sam asked.

Ponk hummed. "You forget I can use the void too, stoopid" Ponk chuckled. "And yeah they're real." He looked off into the distance, no more explanation. Sam wanted to ask more questions, but he sighed letting it go for now.

"Then, what's the plan Tubbo?" Sam asked.

Tubbo gave a half hearted smile, before turning to the rest. "We follow them. George- they have crystals right?"

George glanced back at the trackpad and noticed new dots, much much farther away.

"Yeah."

"So then we capture them, bring them back to the hub where we can contain them. And if we kill them and they respawn back there, we have the cool bee guy and the others to catch them while we get back as quick as we can. Also we're calling them Dreamons- because it's a mix of Dream and demons. I came up with it." Tubbo smiled, feeling more confident. Tommy smiled, looking at his friend in a bit of awe. Fundy nodded, making eye contact with a slight proud smile.

Tubbo was met with nods and agreement.

"I have the signal on them now," George said.

"Well then let's hurry up!" Sapnap said, getting impatient.

George looked again at the dots- there were a few more than he had expected.

"How many people are there again?"

"Dream"

"Eret"

"Ranboo"

"Punz"

"Well there are 5 dots on the screen." George mumbled.

"That explains the extra armor missing from the prison then." Sam said.

"One mystery person then." Bad said, glancing at the tracker.

"Let's get to it then." George said, handing the second tracker back to Philza. "We have some walking to do."

The forests were serene and quiet. There were a few squirrels in the trees that had put Philza on edge, and a few rustles in the bushes that got swords pointed at them from multiple people, but after quite a few minutes of no surprise attacks, the group relaxed a bit.

Tubbo caught sight of some wild bees that Tommy had to drag him away from, and Antfrost instinctively swatted at a few butterflies getting a chuckle and a peck from Velvet. There was light chattering, talking about the fresh air, or the gorgeous forest, or simply complaining about the annoying walking around trees and through bushes with no trail to guide them.

Sapnap broke the calm conversation with his own complaining.

Why does this feel so much longer than the last time!?" Sapnap sulked. "We're in the same forest right? Going to the same city we found him in the first time?"

"Well yes-" George started. "-But the portal is much farther away from the city than the last time."

"Wait what? How does that work?" Puffy butted in.

"I dunno," George shrugged. "Tracker just says we're somewhere different."

"Earth magic is finicky," Skeppy explained, sort of unhelpfully.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Puffy asked again, still confused.

"It means that each time we turn on the portal, it's in a different place." Skeppy said. "The magic isn't as stable as other dimensions, so it's weird. The one to Earth is always in this forest though."

Bad nodded with him like this was common knowledge. Sapnap scoffed.

"Well I don't like it. Stupid earth magic probably gave the Dreamon group a fucking head start."

"Language, Sapnap." Bad said bluntly.

The group continued on, trekking through the forest and trying not to trip on fallen logs or underbrush in the way. George kept them on track, solely focusing on the dots they were heading towards.

With it, they might get the element of surprise if they played their cards right. He assumed Dream had no way to track them, which, if things played similar to the first hunt, ment surprise was their key to victory.

The image of Dream's body, curled over and bleeding on the cave floor, flashed in George's eyes. He shook his head, and looked around him, trying to avoid tripping over any flora in the way.

"Where do you think Dre-am is heading?" Tommy asked out of the blue, carefully stepped over a tree root in the way.

"Nowhere good." Sapnap muttered.

"That muffinhead could be planning anything." Bad whispered, loud enough for the people nearest to him to hear.

"If Dream is possessed by a void demon, did the void demon possess the others too?" Sam asked. "Like- is it all connected?"

"We think so." Tubbo answered. "None of us have the symptoms the others did, but we don't know how they got possessed either."

Sam thought it over, going through the possessed people in his head. His pace unconsciously slowed, especially because he wasn't paying attention to the things he needed to walk over or around as much.

"Oh my god this is my fault." Sam said, head ridden with a wave of guilt. People started to look at him, slowing down as well. "If I had known Dream was- and a void demon!- then I wouldn't have left my guards there with him. Not alone at least."

"Sam you couldn't have known." Ponk assured him.

"But I- I left Ranboo and Punz there alone! I'm the reason he had the chance to possess them." Sam blamed himself.

"Yeah- the weirdo was being all weird in his cell when I was on duty." Tommy said casually, hopping over some moss ridden log. "Knew my full name and shit-"

"Wait WHAT?" Wilbur had been quiet the whole time, but this news was at least a little alarming. He stopped dead in his tracks, slowing the whole group too.

"You talked to him?!" Philza asked quickly.

"What did he say?!" Sapnap asked.

"Tommy, do you know how stupid that is!" Puffy accused.

"The first rule of being a guard is to not talk to the prisoners!" Sam said.

"You could have gotten seriously hurt!" Niki said, worry written all over her face. "He had a magic blast that could've knocked you unconscious! Or worse!"

Technoblade was alarmed too, silently watching him like a hawk. Bad glanced away in guilt. He had done the same thing, but only Sapnap knew.

The group was in a small clearing now, and had fully stopped to talk- or rather, argue.

"Jeez guys calm down- I'm fine." Tommy said, a little taken back that everyone had freaked out so much.

"He knew your name?" Tubbo asked.

"Yeah-" Tommy said slowly, recalling the encounter. "Your's too actually. He knew you were a science kid, and that freaked me out."

"Tommy what did he say to you? If this void demon accidentally gave you important information, we need to know." Sapnap asked again.

George glanced away. Sapnap didn't even refer to him by his name, just "this void demon" and it hit a nerve in George he didn't know he had.

"Uh- well he said he was a fan which was weird, but who can hate me anyway." Tommy said with a confident smile.

A few glares were shot his way, telling him to stay on track.

"Right uh- he called me a kid, said he could offer me the freedom to do whatever I wanted- which was pathetic because look where he was- his eyes were glowing, and then when I declined his offer he said I'd made a dangerous enemy. Which I guess is true now-" Tommy tried to remember more. "Oh and I flipped him off when I walked away! That was pretty poggers." He said smugly.

No one found that funny. (except for maybe Tubbo, but he was good at hiding it.)

"Anything helpful? What he was planning to do?" Sapnap pushed.

"He mentioned not being in there long, but I called his bluff on that- there's nothing else he said."

"Anything? Got sensitive at any point? Avoided topics?"

"Well it wasn't like I sat and had tea with this guy!" Tommy said. "Topics? Really?"

George put his hand on Sapnap's shoulder; It was well above a normal temperature.

"Sapnap, relax, you're burning up." George said quietly.

Sapnap panicked a little and flinched from George's touch, afraid to burn him. "Uh sorry" He muttered. He took a deep breath, trying to force himself to cool down. He wasn't really sure if that was how it worked, but he tried nonetheless. Couldn't really set on fire in the forest. Just- at all.

"Tommy, do you realize that is highly irresponsible?" Wilbur asked, eyes thinning towards him.

"Well now I do. At the time, I had no idea who he was!" Tommy defended himself.

"We're just looking out for you mate. This Dreamon guy doesn't mess around." Philza said.

"Alright alright, I'll be more careful with who I talk to in the future. Happy now?"

Wilbur rolled his eyes, and Philza sighed with a bit of a chuckle. "Yes Tommy."

The walking continued, mostly quietly as they tried to make up for any time arguing. There were complaints of being tired from several people, but they died down as people really did start to get tired and chose to save their breath. The sun went down slowly, and Sapnap really swore at the portal for being so much farther than the first time, but at least each step brought them closer.

One step at a time was how they had to play it for now.

"Guys, we're nearing the edge of the forest, and it's getting late." George said, starting down at his tracker. "We either need to camp here for the night, or get into the city and find some cheap Earth mottel, which will be expensive and hard to find for so many people."

"Sounds like we're camping then." Sam said "Did we at least make some good ground on the Dremons?" Sam asked, using the name Tubbo was proud of earlier.

George looked, and noticed there was at least a small visible decrease in the distance between the two groups now. It wasn't a ton, but the forests were hard to traverse in their defence, and walking in the city could probably help them pick up the pace tomorrow.

"Yeah."

"If it brightens anyone's spirits, me and Tommy brought s'mores!" Tubbo smiled, reaching into his bag and pulling out a (mumbo) jumbo pack of marshmallows.

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Proud of me for sticking all of the walking to one chapter instead of 10?  So I finished edited the first manhunt book and that's why this one took so long to get out- plus 8 tests in one week, piles of homework, and writers block contributed their parts too. 

Also, fun fact!, this story is also several pages longer than the first one despite only about half of the chapters! So yeah- uh- this'll be a long one. Thanks for reading if ya still are, I appreciate you guys a lot. Have an amazing day or night!