(Fic) FN - Equipment 7
Story 07: Sonic
Summary: In which Peter and Charley display the proper, and not so proper, use of the standard tools of a vampire hunter. Peter/Charley
Word Count: 766
Warnings/Rating: T for language
Disclaimer: Fright Night and all characters therein © Tom Holland/Craig Gillespie. The sonic screwdriver comes from British sci-fi series Doctor Who and is © BBC, Victor Pemberton, Nick Robatto, and the Doctor Who producers.
Author’s Note: Goddammit. I swore to myself I wasn’t going to write silly Doctor Who in-jokes for Fright Night fics. As much as I adore Doctor Who and the Tenth Doctor, I try to avoid this kind of thing, because there’s only so many times you can make jokes that purely rely on ‘haha isn’t that funny, DT played Peter AND Ten!’ before it stops being funny.
Then my friend showed me his new Sonic Screwdriver blacklight pen, and all that got thrown out the window.
---
A wrapped present dropped into his lap, making Charley flinch. He looked up to see Peter, face stretched out into a mad grin, bouncing on his toes.
“Merry Christmas!” he announced with relish.
“Christmas was months ago,” Charley remarked, a wry twist to his eyebrow. He sat up straight and pulled his math textbook out from under the package to set it on the little table next to the couch. Spontaneous gifts were not uncommon with Peter, but the magician always tried to make lame excuses for them.
“Well, happy birthday, then,” Peter amended, and moved over to the bar to pour himself a drink.
“It’s not my birthday either. That’s next month.” Charley mentions as he examined the package. It was not very large, maybe the size of a pencil case, but it had a solid weight to it. It was beautifully wrapped; the paper was a deep royal blue, and it had real silk ribbons tied around it that cascaded down in elegant curls.
Peter held up his tumbler in toast. “Well, then, no happy day for you. Would you just fucking open it already?” Peter was eying the present eagerly, and Charley grinned. If he took much longer opening the gift, he was sure Peter was going to come over and tear the paper off himself.
Shaking his head, he relented and tugged on the tangle of ribbons, pulling them off the end of the box. Another quick glance revealed Peter trying to hide his excitement behind his glass, and Charley felt a swell of fondness for his older friend.
The paper tore away to reveal a sleek wooden box with silver fixtures. Charley had fiddle with the clasp a moment before it popped open. Nestled inside the box in a bed of velvet, was a slender silver tool with a blue, gem-like light on one end.
“Is this a sonic screwdriver?” Charley asked, looking up at his friend. His smile was incredulous, if delighted, and matched Peter’s manic grin.
“Custom-made to be an exact, working replica of the mark six sonic,” the magician said. “Go on, pull it out!”
Charley shook his head at the ridiculousness of it all, but he drew out the metal tool. “It’s heavier than I thought it would be,” he remarked. He pointed it away from the couch and pressed the main button. The blue end lit up, and a high-pitched buzzing filled the air, making Charley’s grin turn gleeful.
“That’s ’cause it’s not just a cheap plastic toy. Now, here’s the fun part,” Peter leaned over the arm of Charley’s chair, pointing at a little ring around the body of the tool. “Here’s your settings, twist the ring and it‘ll change the effects. Setting one is just a simple LED flashlight. Two is a UV flashlight, like the kind they use at crime scenes to find bloodstains. Three, you’ll want to be careful with, because it’s a UV laser. Don’t go shining it in people’s eyes or anything… unless they’re a vampire. In fact, if you should run into a vampire, go for setting three. Bloodsuckers won’t be too fond of that.”
Charley laughed in delight. “You seriously got me a working sonic screwdriver. Not just one that lights up and hums, but actually does something useful. Where the hell did you get this?”
Peter shrugged. “Custom-made, I told you. I know a guy. Now, one last thing. You’re gonna love this! Unscrew the other end.”
Charley turned the tool over, examining the pommel of the tool and finding a hairline break in the metal between two sections. “Right here?” Peter nodded, and he twisted it apart, revealing a hidden compartment. Tucked inside was a set of thin bands of metal with curious, twisting shapes at the ends.
“Standard lock pick set,” Peter announced with obvious relish. He took the pieces of the sonic from Charley and stuck one of the picks into a hidden slot on the end, tightening it with another ring near that end. “Look, it gives you a proper handle for the picks and everything.”
He reached back into the open compartment and drew out a little white pen. “Also, just for shits and giggles, there’s an invisible ink pen in here too. Shows up under the UV flashlight setting.” He shrugged, his eyes sparkling with cheeky humor.
Charley could not stop grinning. He shook his head. “Oh my god, I can’t decide if you’re a genius or an idiot.”
Peter made a funny sort of giggle. “Just leave at brilliant then?”
“I dunno if I’d go that far,” Charley smirked.
“Oi!”
---
End
More silliness. :) I love working on this series. I don’t stress over it as much as I do other projects. It makes me feel good.
The Mark VI Sonic Screwdriver is used by the Tenth Doctor. There is some debate about when he started using it. It is widely assumed that the Mark VI appeared after the Doctor accidentally demolishes his old one in “Smith and Jones” (S3 Ep1). Other sources say that the sonic screwdriver prop was not redesigned until after season three, and first appears in “Partners in Crime” (S4 Ep1). It was used by the Tenth Doctor through seasons 4 and the 2009 specials season (and possibly season 3), and briefly by the Eleventh Doctor in his first episode “The Eleventh Hour” (S5 Ep1) before he (again) demolishes it and it is replaced by the Mark VII.
btw, if you were wondering, UV lasers are apparently an actual thing. However, I only did some general research this time instead of pouring over every source I could find for hours like I usually do, so don’t count this as factual.