"Nowadays they've got soybean fuel, switchgrass fuel, algae fuel. Come on!" A young man wearing a green and orange flannel shirt complained to his companion as he began to pump the three jerry cans that the other man had brought him full of fuel. The young man in question was named Chug Holman, best friend to Dusty Crophopper and Dottie Decker and the third youngest person living at Propwash Junction at 30 years old. Chug stood at 5'10 and was both the tallest and oldest of his friends, he had unruly auburn hair that he kept hidden most of the time under a green baseball cap and had a pair of hazel eyes.
Being the youngest residences at Propwash the three friends had been drawn to each other as children as there was no one else around their own age to play with. They would spend hours running around the airport playing games and sometimes if they were really good they were allowed to go swimming in the nearby river as long as one of their parents went with them. They even went to school together, taking online classes in an unused hanger because the nearest actual school was so far away. Through thick and thin the three friends stuck together, the three had even gone into business together opening up the Fill n' Fly not long after they left school, with Chug and Dottie running the majority of the business while Dusty owned a small percentage for the money she had put forward to help open the shop.
"Oh healthy, no tank you." Chug's companion Sparky exclaimed as he watched Chug fill up the jerry cans. Sparky worked at Skippers Flight School run by his long-time friend Skipper Riley who had opened the school nearly 10 years ago, taking over the role as the towns flying teacher after the last one had retired. Unlike Skipper who spent the majority of his time hidden away in his hanger, Sparky was a very active and social individual spending his day when not working hanging around with the other residents, especially Chug who Sparky could talk to for hours without realising how much time had gone by.
"Tell me about it. What's next pistachio propane?" Chug joked as he moved to fill the second jerry can. When Chug and his friends had been in school he had found a passion for science similarly to how Dottie fell in love with mechanics and Dusty with flying. And so, as he grew up he began to think about how he could use his love of science to make a living in Propwash and one day it hit him, he would make his own fuel; both organic and renewable out of the crops that surrounded the town. In fact, Chug's fuel was so good that everyone in Propwash used it as it could be used in both cars and planes and it was much cheaper than regular fuel.
"What, are you nuts?" Sparky replied, unsure if Chug was joking or not. Unlike Chug, Sparky was considerably shorter, in fact he was one of the shortest citizens with only a few inches on the shortest resident Dottie; who really got the short end of the stick being the youngest and shortest in the town. Sparky was also much older than the trio, having been a young man working as a medic in the war around the time they were all born. It was how Sparky and Skipper had met, with Sparky taking care of Skip after he had been injured in battle and deciding to follow him after the war had ended; knowing that Skipper wouldn't take care of himself properly if he was left alone. Sparky hadn't minded though he never had, he had no family back then so joining Skipper had seemed like the right thing to do and he still believed that now; he had a steady job, great friends and he lived in a beautiful yet small community what more could anyone want.
"For my money, there's nothing like good old-fashioned corn fuel." Chug told him as he moved the pump and began to fill the final jerry can. Corn, who would think that the crop could be so profitable, although at the start Chug had his doubts about the stuff. When he began making his own fuel Chug's only customers had been Dusty and Dottie, wanting to support him as much as they could. The town hadn't actually believed Chug when he said that the fuel could be used in multiple vehicles until they had seen him fill up Dusty's plane and then Dottie small car. Soon after the business boomed and Chug even made enough money to afford a fuel truck to both house and pump his fuel properly rather than keeping it in jerry cans in his home and using a funnel and tube to fill up engines. "I even came up with a slogan. Corn, it gives you gas."
"Catchy, I like it." Sparky told him as he took the slogan in. Chug had been telling him for a while that he was thinking about expanding his business to some of the 'neighbouring' towns, although he wouldn't consider a city nearly 2 hours away neighbouring, but it was the closest place of civilisation to Propwash.
"Me too. There you go Sparky, you're all set." Chug told him as he finished filling up the final jerry can. Sparky always bought more fuel than he needed though Chug figured that was more for Skipper than for Sparky. The whole town knew about Skipper's brave heroics in the war and how badly he had been injured, with Sparky having to push him around in a wheelchair whenever he went outside his hanger, which wasn't very often. Skipper hadn't flown since the war although he had become a flying instructor and had kept his old war plane, an F4U Corsair, in his hanger. But Sparky had always been determined that Skipper would one day fly again, and he would be ready with fuel when the day finally came.
"Catch you later Chug." Sparky replied as he began to push the jerry cans away on the silver trolley he had brought. As Chug stood there watching Sparky walk back to his hanger Chug began to wonder where his best friend was, he had heard the siren go off a few minutes previous and she still hadn't arrived yet. Just as Chug was about to go looking for her however a voice came on over his radio causing him to smile and run inside his section of the shop to answer her call.
"This is Dusty Crophopper to Chug. Over"