A pair of androids built in the Reavers' Australian Outback base by Donald Pierce to destroy Wolverine, Albert and Elsie-Dee form a most unusual partnership. Albert impersonated Wolverine to draw him out, while the explosive-packed Elsie-Dee was given the form of a five-year-old girl to get Wolverine close enough to blow him up. Pierce intended Elsie-Dee to have a child-like intellect, thus preventing her from trying to save herself by disarming her explosives. However, Bone-Breaker botched this part of the programming, giving Elsie a genius I.Q. Unable to override her own programming, she instead increased the intellect of her partner (whom she named Albert, after Einstein), hoping this would help him defeat Wolverine and negate her drive to explode. Albert ambushed his prey beneath an L.A. pier, but lost the fight and was badly damaged. Elsie-Dee set a fire, and then posed as a trapped child to draw Wolverine in. Wolverine rescued her, but Elsie-Dee decided she could not kill someone who truly cared for her. She confessed her true nature to Wolverine, using all her willpower to override the detonation program. Wolverine refused to leave her to her fate; she hacked into the N.S.A. computer network, seeking to decode the arming sequence. Albert, who had slipped away during the fire to repair himself, hijacked a Radio Hut store to acquire more computing power, and cracked the code.
Forge examined Elsie-Dee, but could not remove the explosives. Albert stole a Stealth jet to rejoin Elsie-Dee, but was shot down over Manhattan by the U.S. Air Force, and crashed into the waters below. Both androids moved into the sewer system, where Elsie-Dee encountered Cable and Sabretooth; with her head detached, she remotely exploded her body, destroying the pump room to save them from drowning. As S.H.I.E.L.D. removed them from the area, Sabretooth broke free and attacked Wolverine; Elsie bit Sabretooth, causing him to leap from the copter. Albert retrieved her head, and swiftly built Elsie a new form. Albert also repaired the jet and the androids departed alongside the "Hunter in Darkness," a vaguely humanoid lupine from Canada which Elsie befriended and renamed Puppy.
Traveling to Canada, they found a burial mound containing a clawed Adamantium skeleton. Bargaining with Spiral to be sent back in time, the trio arrived in the middle of a battle between rival factions of the Siksika tribe. Elsie-Dee and Albert encountered a temporally displaced Forge and Wolverine from a decade ahead of their own era, who had traveled back to combat the Adversary. Forge and Wolverine vanished through time again; with no access to time travel, Albert and Elsie-Dee stayed with the Siksika until their batteries ran down. They were found in the modern era by Bloodscream, who recharged them. Albert located their modified Stealth jet, and the pair resumed their travels together.
