April Fools 2006

**April Fools**, known as **Tower Day** by some, was a critical turning point in the Gaian plot. As with many updates, this began with a short summary to recap what happened in the story thus far:

--

***Johnny K. Gambino was once the most powerful man in all of GAIA.***

***Consumed with power, he built a great tower that challenged the heavens in its glory.***

***But like all men who challenge the Gods, he was struck down by fate.***

***For on the day the tower fell, so did the might Gambino and all his legacy.***

***However, the Gambino name would not die so easily; for it would continue on with his son Gino Gambino.***

***Many mysteries surrounded Master Gino's return.***

***Seemingly out of nowhere, the once innocent child became GAIA's first champion with strength that could rival even the strongest of Icons.***

***And although this young man shined brightly,***

***A shadow would be cast upon him once again...***

--

This update was also to honour VO's father.

## Plot

The story began when Cindy Donovinh, reporter of GAIA9 Action News, recieved a confidential letter from LabTechX regarding G-Corp's Secret Underground Testing Facility. Meanwhile, Ian had just been released from the hospital after recuperating from his wounds acquired in The Trial of Ian update, only to be found by Gino Gambino. Gino, who seemed to believe Ian had obvious romantic intentions toward Sasha, challenged Ian to a duel. Despite the arguments from the other zNPCs present, Ian accepted and both he and Gino were off to the Barton Cliffs.

In their new location, Gino proclaimed that, while he may be challenging a wounded man, one must remember the Gambino motto - "Win At Any Cost". Just as Gino charged at an unresisting Ian, Cindy appeared on scene in her chopper piloted by Mike, a new NPC. During the middle of Gino's charge, LabTechX appeared from nowhere to stop him from reaching Ian.

LabTechX grabbed Gino's fist and injected a green liquid into Gino, "revealing his true nature," which (after a small twleve hour break from the admins) turned out to be an Akira-reminiscent DNA mutation. After a flashback, it was cleared up that the "Mysterious Green Liquid" is actually a cell combiner, which can be used to form new cells from the best of both the samples taken.

This explained Halloween 2004's zombies (dead cells merging with living). When the mansion burned down during that 2004 update, Johnny K. injected himself with the liquid in hopes to become immortal and become his own heir (since his son had lost his memory after the Christmas 2004 update). This did not work, however, as Johnny had nothing to fuse with. This caused him to become insane, unstable, and ultimately led to his demise when the sniper shot him during the April Fools 2005 event. It was revealed that Gino followed Gambino down as he fell, and that Gambino's unstable form fused with Gino to create the Gino that had been dominating plot for the past year.

The 2006 April Fools update ended with a literal "bang" as the unstable Gino hit the water and released a tremendous explosion. For some time, all town maps were filled with a white/green glow. It left a large crater on the map, and the only known survivor is Johnny K. himself, who seemed to have either separated or morphed from Gino's body.

There are some yellow specks underneath a few clouds of dust in the last manga page that have been rumored to be a naked Gino (and thus a separation of the merged cells instead of a morph to the original injectee) but nothing has been proven.

#### **Social Repercussions**

As with many updates, this update had some interesting social repercussions. The update was intended in part to honor VO's father, Van Vo, who was dying of cancer at the time. Many users followed to VO's journal, reading his thoughts on his father's illness, and created a cancer-support movement that became commonly known as the Yellow Daffodil Movement. As yellow is the color ribbon that is normally worn for rallies and events to fight cancer, participants were encouraged to hold yellow daffodils in a show of support for all people with cancer. This caught on quite well, and soon many people were wearing the daffodils in some way on their avatar. The movement lost momentum after a short while, but remains a good example of the support Gaians can muster for the community.