Kenshiro Cochrane, nicknamed Zero, was a hacker and a data thief in the year 2099. But when he and his group, the Hotwire Martyrs, broke into a secured computer system and stole valuable data from Transverse City’s D/Monix company, his life disintegrated. Jeter Warlord and the Artificial Kidz, acting on information supplied to them by D/Monix, attacked the Martyrs and both Zero’s fellow hackers were either killed or captured. Zero himself ran for his life with a flechette round shot in his shoulder before eventually being cornered by Jeter. But instead of giving Jeter the pleasure of killing him, Zero injected himself into cyberspace without a buffer, which left his body a dead lump of flesh to be destroyed by the Kidz.
Zero found his consciousness floating in a hidden part of cyberspace called the Ghostworks, where a group of beings with an agenda for the human race had taken him. In order to fight the corruption of society and further their plans, they rebuilt Zero into a carbon steel, android body, and infused him with powers and the mantle of the long-vanished Ghost Rider. They also edited out parts of Zero’s personality in order to keep him docile but gave him the illusion of free will.