Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 9

"Demolition Man"

Cover Date: January 1995; On Sale Date: November 1994

Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Mark Buckingham; Inker: Kev Sutherland; Letterer: Richard Starkings w/ Comicraft; Colorist: Christie Scheele w/ Heroic Age; Editor: Evan Skolnick; Group Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Kyle Hotz

Zero Cochrane is surfing through cyberspace, searching for the Ghostworks, the artificial intelligence programs that transformed him into the Ghost Rider. After discovering that they had altered his programming to stop him from talking about their existence he is determined to find them, but after 6 days has had no luck. He unplugs himself from the matrix and remembers a virus program he has at his old crash pad that could track down the Ghostworks for him. In Cyberspace, the Ghostworks have been observing Zero's search for them, and though they admit that given sufficient time he could conceivably track them down they are aware of coming events that will serve to distract him from that goal.

Zero makes his way to a part of Transverse City called Little Calcutta, where he meets with an old friend and street vendor named Pak. During their conversation, Pak tells Zero that several people have been gruesomely murdered by a "horrorshow monster with teeth". Zero makes his way to the crash pad, but quickly realizes that D/Monix ransacked the place and took away all of the discs that were there. He gets lost in a memory of his dead friends and punches the wall, saying it wasn't his fault that he lived when they died. Suddenly, the crash pad explodes. Meanwhile, Pak is murdered by the "horrorshow monster".

Zero emerges from the rubble of the crash pad in his Ghost Rider form and is confronted by Jeter, former leader of the Artificial Kidz. Zero had severed his cybernetic limbs from his body in his last encounter and he has since paid the Bone Mechanix to attach his torso to several tanks. After a brief fight Zero gets the upper hand, decapitates Jeter, and throws his severed head into a fire. Later, Zero wanders by a crowd that has gathered around Pak's mutilated body and Zero decides he needs to find the killer.

Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 5

"Rage Against the Machine"

Cover Date: September 1994; On Sale Date: July 1994

Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Mark Buckingham; Inker: Mark Buckingham & Kev Sutherland; Letterer: Richard Starkings w/ John Gaushell; Colorist: Christie Scheele w/ Heroic Age; Editor: Evan Skolnick; Group Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Mark Buckingham

Following the death of his friend Warewolf, the Ghost Rider wages all-out war against Central Security Systems' armored police force.  After he wins the battle, Zero is approached by reporter Willis Adams, who asks what Zero is so angry about.  Zero gives a short speech about what the "biz suits" have done to the world, and then tells the reporter that if he wants to know about him he should ask D/Monix.  Adam's technicians manage to stop the broadcast feed the moment Zero mentions D/Monix, and Zero departs the battleground.

He soon arrives in Neo-Chicago, home of the D/Monix corporation.  Using his steal camouflage field, he disguises himself as a guard and gains access to the D/Monix building, where he encounters executive Jackson Womack.  Upstairs, Harrison Cochrane thinks about the deal Womack had presented to him regarding the decryption of the Singapore Archive disc that had recently been recovered.  Fearing the wrath of D/Monix CEO Kellerman, Harrison tells the newly-arrived Womack that he doesn't think they should do it behind Kellerman's back.  Womack asks Harrison who fingered the Hotwire Martyrs in the archive's theft, and a surprised Harrison states that he was the one who did it.  Womack's features transform into a furious Zero, who addresses Harrison as "Dad".  Surprised to his see his dead son standing in front of him, Harrison attempts to justify his actions that led to Zero's death.  Zero transforms into the Ghost Rider and smashes Harrison's computer, retrieving the Archive disc.  After Harrison tells where to find both Zero's captive girlfriend Kylie and his confiscated motorcycle, Zero shatters the disc and leaves Harrison to clean up the mess.

Zero retrieves his bike and busts into the neuroterrogation lab, where he finds the comatose Kyle and the similarly captive Doctor Neon, who begs to be freed.  Zero is shocked to see his own dead body and briefly wonders if there would be a way to "reboot" his mind back into it. He quickly changes his mind and incinerates the corpse, thinking "no going back".  He then escapes D/Monix with the unconscious Kyle and Doctor Neon.  Elsewhere, the entities that comprise the Ghostworks have been watching, stating that the Singapore Archive contained evidence of their existence has now been destroyed and a period of observation for Zero should be considered before proceeding to "stage two".