When the first mutant child after M-Day was born, there was a mad rush by various factions to control the infant. The X-Men saw the child as the savior of the mutant race but the Purifiers, a group of religious extremists, saw it as a threat and wanted to kill it. Cyclops decided to put a mole on the inside of the Purifiers and asked Rictor to help, as he was the only non-mutant around that he could trust. 
Rictor agreed and a plan was set up to get him into the organization. Wolfsbane attacked a group of Purifiers and Rictor, posing as a man named Joaquin Murrieta, just happened to save them and “kill” her. Rictor had gained their trust and, after a quick scan to make sure he had no powers, he was allowed deeper into their group. Soon he managed to gain the information that he had been after, the fact that the Purifiers didn’t have the child and they had no idea where it was. However, he also found out that they had employed Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers to help find the child. Things became a lot more complicated when he discovered Anole from the New X-Men sneaking into one of the bases. He was alarmed to discover the rest of the team were there and they were facing off against Lady Deathstrike. He found the teens being severely beaten and he managed to calm Pixie down enough for her to recite her teleportation spell and get them all out. Once he was free of the carnage, he managed to let Emma Frost know all he had learned. The baby was eventually found by the X-Men and sent into the future to be raised by Cable. [Messiah Complex crossover]
During the hunt for the messiah baby, Layla Miller had been stranded in the future. Although Rictor had an antagonistic relationship with her, he was still concerned and, when he saw a girl that looked like her, he followed her. It wasn’t Layla and he was beat up by a group of men for his trouble. Strong Guy stepped in to help, which made Rictor feel worse, as he believed everyone thought he was weak because he had no powers. 
Feeling he had no one else to turn to, he comforted himself with the fact he still had Wolfsbane. However, when he came home, he found a letter from her explaining that she was leaving him and the team. His heartbreak quickly turned to anger and he decided to quit the team, as he could no longer be involved in the affairs of mutants. After arguing with Madrox, he stormed out but he barely made it off the front step before he fell down a trap door in the pavement. When he regained consciousness, he found himself strapped to a cross with a giant saw swinging closer and closer to him.
Fortunately, Strong Guy had spotted him disappear and had gotten the team on the case. Eventually, they discovered they were dealing with Arcade. The Purifier who had recruited Rictor into the organization had lost his position because Rictor turned out to be a traitor. So he employed the master of Murderworld to turn Mutant Town into his own playground and exact a deadly revenge on Rictor. However, Rictor managed to free himself in time for the rest of X-Factor to put an end to Arcade’s games. 
Unfortunately, Arcade had a back-up plan and a series of bombs had been planted across Mutant Town. He trapped the district in a force field as the bombs went off and created chaos. Whilst other members of X-Factor saved the residents of the area, Rictor tried to hack Arcade’s computer systems to bring down the force field. Eventually, he got lucky when he threw a chair at the console in anger and overloaded the system. [X-Factor (3rd series) #28-31]
After the events in Mutant Town, Rictor decided not to leave X-Factor and the whole team moved to Detroit to make a fresh start. Surprisingly, they were followed by Val Cooper, who wanted to keep a close eye on the team as well as the now-pregnant Siryn. One day after an argument with Val, Siryn went into labor. Not wanting to see the government interfere with the childbirth, Rictor impulsively started shooting a gun in order to distract the various agents lurking around, hopefully giving Siryn the opportunity to fly to a hospital alone. However, his plan backfired when Val was shot in the crossfire. Thankfully, Val survived and Rictor managed to dodge being arrested. [X-Factor (3rd series) #38]
Soon after, X-Factor was dragged into a situation involving one of Madrox’s dupes named Cortex, who had turned evil. At the time, Madrox had disappeared and, when Rictor and Strong Guy went to investigate, they discovered evidence that Layla Miller was involved. As they were quizzing a witness, they were attacked by an agent of Cortex. When they ripped off the man’s balaclava during the fight, they discovered it was actually a mind-controlled Shatterstar. A tense battle erupted that ended when Cortex was briefly distracted and 'Star regained control of his body. Once his mind was his own again, Shatterstar quickly grabbed hold of Rictor and kissed him. After trying to figure out what was going on, the three men set off back to Detroit. Along the way, Strong Guy quizzed Rictor on his relationship with Shatterstar and he seemed a little taken aback with some of the answers. Rictor was noticeably annoyed at some of the off-hand jokes Strong Guy kept making about his sexuality and the car journey became very strained. Thankfully, Shatterstar woke up and displayed a teleportation power that took them back home. There they met Val Cooper, who told them that the rest of X-Factor was also in conflict with Cortex’s forces. The three men confronted Cortex in the present, as Madrox and Layla fought him from the future and he was eventually defeated. [X-Factor (3rd series) #41-50]
X-Factor soon relocated back to New York and Shatterstar decided to join them. He and Rictor also resumed their relationship, the subject of which gave Strong Guy lots of ammunition to make uncomfortable jokes about. Thankfully, X-Factor’s next case came along to distract everyone as it involved the team heading off to Latveria to rescue Susan Richards, aka the Invisible Woman. [X-Factor (1st series) #200-202]
When X-Factor took a trip to the X-Men’s island of Utopia, the members of the team had mixed feelings about what they encountered. While some of the team spent their time reconnecting with old friends, Rictor was more pre-occupied by Shatterstar's behavior. His boyfriend was flirting with anyone who crossed his path and it only got worse when they ran into Ric's former crush Boom Boom. She was so delighted to see 'Star she barely noticed Rictor standing right next to him. Shatterstar dramatically kissed Boom Boom in front of everyone and then the two sauntered away, leaving Rictor to stew in his own bad mood. [X-Factor: Nation X]
Rictor’s non-mutant status came in handy again when he had to go undercover to gather info for the team. Bastion, the Sentinel from the future, was enacting his endgame plan to rid the world of mutants. Whilst the majority of his forces were concentrated on the X-Men, X-Factor was also targeted for eradication. When the team realized something was going down, Rictor dressed as a homeless man so he could get close to some armed men lurking close by. Once he realized the Mutant Response Division had the agency surrounded, Madrox moved everyone to a safe house. Bolivar Task and his soldiers found them but were ultimately defeated, as was Bastion. [X-Factor (1st series) #204-206]
Once again Rictor’s self-doubts plagued him, only this time it was about his relationship with Shatterstar. On the recent trip to Latveria, Shatterstar had become stranded there with the now-adult Layla Miller. He eventually teleported back home but remained elusive as to what had occurred between he and Layla. Rictor finally confronted him but, when Shatterstar told him that he wanted to experience as much as he could, and that included carnal activities with other people, Rictor was angry. However, after realizing that Shatterstar was just as overwhelmed about things as he was, Rictor calmed down. 
Just as they made a vow to take things slowly so they could both figure things out, everything suddenly became a lot more complicated. A heavily pregnant Wolfsbane walked in on the two men, just as they were about to get intimate. Rictor was mortified but Wolfsbane could only see red and she ended up fighting Shatterstar. After calming her down, Rictor asked if he was the father of her baby and, in the spur of the moment, she lied to him and said that he was. [X-Factor (1st series) #207-208]
Wolfsbane’s lie started to unravel pretty fast when she and Rictor went and got an ultrasound. When the doctor was unable to see anything on the monitor, she guessed that it might be because the baby was mystical in nature. Afterwards, Rahne went for a walk and Rictor got drunk and thought about what it all meant. 
When Shatterstar came back from a job involving Hela, the Asgardian goddess of death, he informed Rictor that he knew he wasn’t the father of Rahne’s baby. Hearing that the real father was the Asgardian wolf prince Hrimhari, Rictor wasn’t too shocked and told everyone that he had already figured as much. Though he was still angry, he was made to see that Rahne must have been very scared and fragile to come back to X-Factor. After tracking her down, he put aside his anger and let her know that he knew her secret. The two reconnected as friends again and he vowed to be there for her baby regardless. [X-Factor (1st series) #210, 213]
Rictor began to notice the similarities between Shatterstar and another of his X-Factor teammates, Longshot. It was common knowledge that both came from Mojoworld but when Rictor started asking questions about the link they shared the two men proved rather elusive. [X-Factor (1st series) #217]
The mystical nature of Wolfsbane’s baby soon took on a startling new aspect when various beastly demonic and godly creatures started attacking the team. They could sense she was getting close to giving birth and they all wanted the baby’s power for themselves. Rictor was naturally worried about Rahne, which he channeled into his usual outbursts of anger. When Rahne disappeared with Jack Russell, aka Werewolf-by-Night, the hunt was on to find her before anything else could. Rahne soon gave birth to a small, wolf-like child but the trauma of the birth caused her to recoil away from her son. Rictor and X-Factor soon found her and took her home, although her son was now in the care of Jack. [X-Factor (1st series) #220-224]
The moment Rictor had been praying for since he was depowered finally came. Ever since the Scarlet Witch decimated the mutant race, her whereabouts had remained unknown. However, thanks to the Young Avengers, she soon resurfaced and decided to have a go at reversing the spell she originally cast. 
She needed a test subject first and so Rictor was called up. Against the advice from his teammates, he decided to risk it all to get his powers back. Using her powers, Wanda undid the spell she once cast and Rictor was delighted to realize he now had his powers back. Unfortunately for the rest of the mutant race, Dr. Doom interfered and stripped Wanda of the power to give everyone else their powers back. [Avengers: Children’s Crusade #6-9]