AUTHOR'S NOTE: just to be clear, all members of the Fantastic Four have been "genderswapped", meaning that 'Reed Richards', is now 'Rey', 'Ben Grimm' is now 'Becky', 'Johnny Storm' is now 'Joan, and 'Sue Storm', is now 'Steven'. Or, 'Steve'.

Hope that doesn't confuse you too much. ^^;

Also, these new characters' physical appearances are heavily based off of this wonderful fan art picture -
: / / img13 . deviantart 34e6/i/2014/345/4/1/fantastic_four_by_kaalashnikov-d89i8ql . j p g (copy and paste the link into your search bar, and delete the spaces)

Please continue reading, and enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THE FANTASTIC FOUR OR THE PRODUCTS AND FICTITIOUS PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS STORY.

A Night Out - character genderswap. After a long nights work, Steven Storm smooth-talks Rey Richards into going out on a date with him, the only problem? The rest of the group - Joan and Becky - decide to tag along.

Rey Richards sat in her lab, examining slides underneath her microscope.

She had been spending the entire day making notes on the different patterns she saw in each strand of the foreign DNA she was studying, and she had barely scratched the surface.

At this rate, she'd be spending the whole night in the lab, which, although she loved science, wasn't very appealing to her strained eyes or aching back.

But still, it was something that had to be done eventually, and she saw no point in taking a break when she'd just end up with a pile of work in the morning anyway.

Best to get it over with now so she could take a load off and spend some time with her friends.

Rey looked away from the microscope and picked up her pen, jotting down yet another note.

Although she was tired, she was very aware of the blond haired male creeping in through the lab door.

She inwardly sighed, amused at his attempt to sneak up on her.

"Don't bother trying to sneak up on me Steven, I can hear you a mile away."

"You can? Darn it! And here I thought I was being so...stealthy." He pouted, emphasizing the last word.

He moved to stand beside her, and Rey looked up at him from her notepad and gave a short laugh.

"Ha! Stealthy?" She teased, going back to her microscope. "You're about as stealthy as a rhino on bubble-wrap."

Steven frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest like a sulking kid.

"Gee, thanks." He replied sarcastically. "That didn't strike a chord. Uh-huh. No way. I'll be fine. No need to apologize or anything."

Rey sighed, looking up from her microscope once more.

"Sorry, I just..." She trailed off, rubbing her temples in an attempt to clear her head. "You know how cranky I can get when I'm wrapped up in my work. Don't take it too seriously, okay?"

"Aw, don't worry about it, Rey," Steven perked up, clapping her on the back with his hand, much to her disliking. "I was only joking. I'll recover." He shrugged.

"Eventually..." He muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Rey asked, getting up from her seat as she pulled off her rubber examination gloves.

"Nothing!" Steve replied quickly, desperate to change the subject.

"Uh...so..." He began, walking down the long line of colored test tubes and assorted bottles on the her workbench. "What are you working on over here?" He inquired, stopping himself in front of a particularly odd-colored fizzing liquid. "What's this new freaky-looking experiment you got going on?"

Steven pointed to a tall slender glass, containing a greenish-yellow substance.

Rey, however, had already shifted her focus to another part of her experiment, and barely glanced up from the lab-notes she was going over to acknowledge it.

"Steven, that's not part of my experiment." She sighed as he picked up the glass of the liquid in question and swished its contents around to better examine it. "It's my Mountain Dew glass."

"What?!" He exclaimed, jerking the suspicious substance away from his face. "That's what Mountain Dew looks like out of the can?!" His eyes popped at the realization. "I ain't ever drinking that stuff again!"

Disturbed, he set the odd-colored beverage back on the test-tube-filled counter and wiped his hand on his shirt.

"Oh, please," Rey said, rolling her eyes. "You'll be sipping back on another one of those things in no time."

Steven casually crossed his arms, leaning himself against one of the lab's counter-tops.

"Yeah, we'll see..." He muttered to himself.

Rey continued to glance at her notes, checking things off and writing things down, adjusting her reading glasses to better see what she was doing.

"So," Steve began after a few moments of silence. "What do you think about taking a break?"

Rey abruptly stopped writing and turned her head to look at him, blinking several times in shock.

"A break?" She asked, awkwardly clearing her throat.

"Yeah," He shrugged casually. "You know, so you can relax a little? Cool off. Sit back. Chill out. Maybe go out somewhere...?" He trailed off.

"Possibly with me...?" He added when she didn't get the hint.

Rey scoffed, struggling to keep a smile from forming on her lips. "Yeah?" She asked, feigning disinterest. "Go where?"

Steven shrugged yet again. "I dunno, Pizza Planet?"

Rey's eyes sparkled at the mention of her favorite childhood restaurant, and, as if by magic, finally set down the pen she'd been using to jot down her notes, turning her full attention to him.

"Pizza Planet?"

"Yeah, why not?" He nodded. "Think you're up for it?"

"Are you buying?" She asked, turning her head away in faux defiance.

"I'm buyin' if you're flyin'." He smirked deviously, taking a step closer.

"And I'm flyin' if you're buyin'." She smirked in return, following his lead.

"So I guess we'll both be buyin' and flyin' tonight, huh?" He said, putting his hands on her waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Guess so."

"So it's official. This is a date, right?"

Rey tilted her head.

"If that's what you want to call it, I won't stop you."

"So is it alright with you if I do this before our date?" He said more than asked, sliding his hands down to her hips and pulling her closer to him.

"As long as you don't mind me doing this," she smiled, resting a hand on either side of his face and kissing him.

He was out of breath by the time they parted, and he drew back to happily stare at her.

"Not at all..." he breathed, grinning.

Rey giggled in amusement.

"'Kay," she said, disentangling herself from him and slowly pulling away. "Be right back. I gotta get out of this lab coat and put on something eye-catching." She winked, stepping out of the lab and rounding the corner to doorway.

"Okay," Steve called to her after she was out of sight.

"I'll just...wait it out here."

Steve leaned back on the counter-top and sighed happily to himself, his face radiating a love-struck glow.

Said glow, however, was short-lived.

For just as he was starting to feel himself relax, a certain blonde-haired, crop-cut, she-devil revealed herself from within the lab.

"HA!" She howled, jumping up from behind one the counters. "Big bro finally got himself a date? Never saw that one coming..." She smirked, shaking her head in disbelief.

Steven wrinkled his nose at his younger sister, mood successfully soured.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, crossing his arms in defense.

"What do you think?" She asked, shifting her weight to one side. "It means you're not a 'ladies' man'." She made air quotations with her fingers.
"And I hate to break it to you, but, you never were, Stevie."

"Gee, thanks..." He scoffed.

Joan shrugged and walked over to the fridge on the far side of the room, opening it up and peering inside.

"Do you think I have a chance at it?" Steve asked abruptly.

"A chance at what?" She asked, pulling out a canned soda and shutting the fridge door behind her.

"A relationship with Rey." He explained, looking down at his feet.

"I mean, she's just so-"

Joan pulled back the tab on the can and cracked it open with a 'hiss', taking a casual sip.

"OH MY GOD," He screeched, sprinting over to her and knocking the beverage out of her hands. "DON'T DRINK THAT!"

Shocked at the thought of it being one of Rey's toxic experiments, Joan's eyes grew as wide as saucers, and she sprayed the contents of the soda out of her mouth and all over the lab's floor.

Rey chose that moment to walk in, now clothed in a casual blue dress and carrying a jacket over her arm, expression sour.

"I'm just so what?" She snapped, throwing her jacket over her shoulder and glaring at Steven.

Steve struggled to find a reply. "So...uh...so..."

"So what?" She repeated irritably.

"So...above me! Yeah, above me." He nodded to himself, proud of his quick thinking. "That's what I was gonna say."

"Really?" Rey replied suspiciously, raising a disbelieving eyebrow as she looked over to Joan for confirmation.

The woman in question nodded back disinterestedly, and Steven thanked his lucky stars for his annoying little sister.

"What was that?" A rough, feminine voice called as they made their way to the doorway. "Who's above who now?"

Becky Grimm stomped her way into the room, her bulky frame and heavy weight shaking the floor with each step.

Rey sighed exasperatedly, hiding her face in her palm.

"Nothing," She irritably replied, eager to move on. "Forget it. Are we going, Steve, or what?"

"Going where?" Becky asked, more interested than Rey would have liked.

"Out to eat." Rey said shortly, grabbing Steven by the wrist and pulling him along with her.

"Where are you eating out at?"

"Perza Plernate..." Rey mumbled under her breath.

"Where?"

"Perza Plernate." She mumbled once more.

"We can't understand you!" Joan stated irritably, crossing her arms.

"Pizza Planet!" She all but screamed, causing everyone in the room to fall silent.

"There. I said it. Now will you get off our backs?! It's getting late. Come on Steve, let's go."

Rey yanked on Steve's arm and, powerless against her, he allowed himself to be dragged away.

"Sweet!" Joan shouted, pumping her fist in air. "I'm in."

Rey whipped her head around, eyes wide with dismay. "What?!"

"Yeah, I think I'll come too." Becky shrugged. "Pizza sounds good."

"Are you kidding me?!" Rey exclaimed, inadvertently pulling Steve back with her as she came to a halt.

"Nah, we've been sitting around here the whole week. Why not get out for a change?"

"Woah, Babe, can you loosen your grip on my hand? 'Cause it's kinda starting to hurt-"

"UGH! You know what? Fine. Let's ALL go. It'll be one HUGE flippin' party!"

"Woo-hoo!" Joan hollered, pumping her fist in the air. "Party time. That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"UGH..."

Rey dragged her hand across her face, utterly baffled at her friends' daft behavior.

When the group arrived at Pizza Planet, Joan and Becky immediately headed for the arcade, while Rey and Steven got themselves a table (well, a booth) and tried to salvage what was left out of their 'date'.

What she wanted was a nice, romantic night out with Steven where they could talk and laugh and joke like old friends.

What she got was a bunch of noise, awkward silence, and a snippy waiter.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm afraid that if you can't control your friends, you will have to leave."

Rey looked over at the 'friends' in question, watching in utter disgust as Joan and Becky loudly (and annoyingly) destroyed the Whack-A-Mole machine in the arcade, scaring a group of children in the process.

She hid her face in shame, shielding her eyes from the sight.

She glanced up at Steven, repugnance clear in her expression.

"Next time, I'm picking the place."

Steve's gaze left hers to stare at Becky and his sister, eyes wide with disbelief.

"No argument there..."

The End.