Chet Griffin is an average guy living in San Francisco. He is one of the two top computer hackers in the area. He spends his evenings browsing the hacking boards online, just acting like a superior to them all, except for one of them. MP Phred is the best computer hacker in the area. He is the only hacker faster and more skilled than Chet. His roommate, Denny, has cerebral palsy, but that does not keep him from stretching out his slow sentences, while adding in his unnecessary profanity.
Chet was always attempting to achieve his lifelong goal, the ultimate rush. This was not hard to do, considering he was a bike messenger on roller blades. He was the fastest blader in the city of San Francisco. Nobody was faster, not even the messengers who actually rode bikes. This is why he earned the elite job of making special deliveries during the day, and was paid under the table for making them in good time. "Good time" was not an issue to Chet. He could go down San Francisco's steepest, most dangerous hill on his roller blades with no fear whatsoever.
Nevertheless, the fearlessness ended when he noticed a pattern in his deliveries. Chet came to the conclusion that he was delivering secret investing information between his boss, Mel Corlini, and clients of Mel's. He believes that he would be entirely guilty if anything were ever to happen to their packages. His thoughts were right.
All hell breaks loose when the package, caught in the same adrenaline rush as Chet, opens spontaneously in his backpack. Through the streets of San Francisco, many of Mel's clients, who apparently have a connection in the police force, chase Chet and his new partner, Spider. They shoot Spider while Chet narrowly escapes through the maddening crowd of people.
Later, as Chet watches the local news with his best friend Ho, a punk-rocking, skateboarding, blue-haired, lesbian, he sees that the news crews think that Chet killed Spider.
