Title: Consequences
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: None
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #24, Net Exports
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks. Game-verse

Warnings: None

Lance angrily threw the papers on his desk into his fireplace with an expression of absolute disgust. President Goodman was going too far. Advocating trade quotas with Orre just to cover the budget shortfall he had caused by going to war with Johto was outrageous!

As if that were not vile enough, he had exported their entire supply of rice. There would be quite a few food shortages this year, and he was sure the poorer people were already turning to alternative sources of nutrition.

He shuddered.

Someone had to do something… but how? He sighed as he glanced at his shelves, seeing the array of poisons lined up neatly in their glass bottles. It would be quick, perhaps not clean, as murder was murder, no matter the cause.

But would killing Goodman change anything? The Kanto Governing Council was as corrupt as he was. Indeed, being in prison would only make his life more miserable.

The Dragon Master sighed. Perhaps, it was time to give up. He had done what he could do. He had tried to do his best for his country. There was no point in wasting the rest of his life.

Those who sowed the wind would reap the whirlwind.

He nodded, and within three days, was ready to begin a new life elsewhere, far away enough not to be recognized, and more importantly, not to be influenced any longer.

End Fic

Completed 1/7/07

Edited 1/19/10

Net Exports is the sum of a country’s exports minus its imports. The U.S. has a negative net export. Budget deficits are bad. Too much econ on the brain…