After dealing with the likes of the MLF, Tyler Dayspring and the Gamesmaster, X-Force had lost a few of its members. Rictor was struggling to find someone to confide in but his prayers were answered by his teammate, Shatterstar. The mysterious warrior had initially annoyed Rictor, as he was not from Earth and struggled to comprehend the culture and human interactions. However, as time went on, he and Rictor became quite good friends and Shatterstar even learnt Spanish so that they could talk about things of a personal nature if need be. It was whilst watching a Latin-American news channel that Shatterstar spotted some of Rictor’s family members in a report. Rictor’s uncle and cousin had been injured in a deal involving the family’s illegal gun activities. Rictor reluctantly returned home for the first time since he ran away many years ago. His step-mother welcomed him with open arms but the rest of the family wasn’t so forthcoming. 
The rest of X-Force had also tagged along and, when Rictor’s family spotted Cable, the man they believed shot Louis Richter, they drew their weapons. Rictor showed his family his powers and used them to stop the fighting. He told them all he was disgusted with them for continuing to deal with stolen guns after his father had died. After visiting his cousin in the hospital, Rictor returned back to the team’s base with the sad realization that he was stuck in a futile war just like his father was. [X-Force (1st series) #34]
After fighting the Phalanx and former teammate Feral, Rictor and Shatterstar decided a little respite was in order and went out on the town. Whilst Rictor was more than happy to dance the night away with the many beautiful women around him, Shatterstar was more troubled. After running out of a nightclub, he confessed to his friend that he had never been intimate with anyone and he didn’t know if he had the emotional capacity for it. Seeing his friend in a crisis, Rictor told Shatterstar that, despite all the bravado, he had also never been intimate with a woman. Rictor assured his friend that he would be there for him and they would work through the issue together. [X-Force (1st series) #43]
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to be there for him much longer. After Arcade blew up their current base, the team relocated back to the X-Mansion. There, Cable told the team that they would be working a lot closer with the main group of X-Men. Rictor seemed uneasy about it all but he lost his temper when he found out that he would have to let telepaths into his mind on a regular basis. Already on the fence about the new direction, Rictor quit the team, despite Shatterstar begging him otherwise. Before he got on the plane to Mexico, though, Rictor was met by Cable who explained that he understood why he wanted to leave and if Rictor should ever want to return he was more than welcome to. [X-Men Prime, X-Force (1st series) #44, Cable (2nd series) #22]
Rictor returned to the team when Shatterstar was going through some personal troubles. However, as soon as Rictor came back, his best friend was kidnapped by Mojo and the team had to go to Mojoworld to retrieve him. It was evident to everyone around him that the time off had not cooled Julio's temper down, as the longer Shatterstar remained missing the worse he got. Thankfully, Rictor demonstrated that he hadn’t lost his touch when it came to his powers and he proved invaluable in the fight against Mojo’s forces. Eventually, Shatterstar was returned to the team, much to the delight of Rictor. [X-Force (1st series) #59-61]
After more typical X-Force shenanigans involving fighting Nazis in Latveria and the future entinel Bastion’s forces, Rictor decided to leave the team again. Cable wanted the team to go underground and assume new identities but many of the existing members, such as Rictor, were against it. Rictor explained that he had returned to the team to make sure Shatterstar was alright, and now he was it was time to go home. This time, Shatterstar decided to join in and the two of them returned to Mexico to try and put a stop to his family’s gun trade activities. [X-Force (1st series) #70]
Unfortunately his peace wasn’t to last as Rictor got word that his cousin was due to pick up a shipment of guns for the family business. Rictor went to stop him but it was all a trap by Arcade to capture him and use him as leverage so that Shatterstar would be forced to fight in a combat arena. Rictor was held captive with bottles of nitro-glycerine around him so he wouldn’t be tempted to use his powers to escape. Shatterstar performed well in the arena and Rictor was subsequently released and the two went back home. [X-Force (1st series) #76]
They continued their war against the gun cartels of Mexico and Rictor personally saw to it that a number of his cousins wound up behind bars for their crimes. During one gun bust, the duo came to the attention of a buyer from Verschlagen Industries, a pharmaceutical company, which was interested in hiring the two young men. They accepted the job to help train the test subjects of a combat serum, but really they were more interested in making sure the company was treating the subjects well. They were pitted against a woman simply known as V-2 but during the fight a man broke in to save her. V-2 died in the brawl and so the two friends escaped with the man, known as V-1. 
As they were fleeing, he explained that he was one of eight children born through a special breeding program but he had managed to escape. The three of them traveled to the base of operations where they ended up fighting Martin Strong, an old enemy of X-Force. Thankfully, the rest of their team arrived in time to help them out.
After finding out that Hanna Verschlagen, the owner of the company and mother of all the test subjects, was running the show, the team traveled to Germany to confront her. However, they were quickly captured and hooked up to a machine along with the rest of her children. Hanna had specifically designed her children so that she could absorb their life forces and activate her own mutant abilities. She started her procedure and began draining the energies but Shatterstar managed to stop the process. Hanna died, but unfortunately so did all her children. [X-Force Annual ‘99]
Rictor and Shatterstar went back to Mexico and continued their previous mission of cleaning up the gun cartels. At some point, their friendship became more intimate but some time later they ended up parting ways again. Whilst Shatterstar returned to his home dimension, Rictor joined the Parisian branch of the X-Corporation. 
When his team was called to help out a train in the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain, things took a dire turn very quickly. A bio-engineered super-being known as Weapon XII was unleashed and the team was overwhelmed. Rictor was injured in the initial confrontation but thankfully he displayed a natural resistance to the bio-weapon. The X-Men managed to defeated Weapon XII and contain the threat but at the cost of the life of one of Rictor’s teammates. [X-Men (2nd series) #128-130, X-Factor (3rd series) #39]