A brilliant robotics engineer, the woman now known as Nanny was happily working away designing battlesuits and weaponry for her employers, little knowing the true purposes of her inventions. For she was in the employ of the organization known as the Right, an anti-mutant militia who wanted to use her battlesuits for capturing and killing mutants. Being a mutant herself, Nanny tried to stop production of her work when she learned of its dread purpose. Instead, however, the Right, intent to force her to remain with them, encased her within the battlesuit she now wears. Trapped within this new shell, her sanity finally broke down.

Nanny finally managed to escape the Right and decided to save young mutants from exploitation by evil-doers. The first such mutant she saved was Peter, whom she turned into her very own Orphan-Maker and used in her subsequent attempts at kidnapping mutants. It has not been revealed how many young mutants Nanny has "rescued" this way, as she professes to keep the children in a hibernation-like state, until such a time as they need not fear persecution. Other children are impressed into service to save even more children, such as her team of Lost Boys (and Girls).

One such kidnapping attempt (once again from an orphanage used as a front by Mister Sinister, the same place where she freed the Orphan-Maker) brought her into conflict with Cyclops and Jean Grey, who were searching for Cyclops' infant son. Nanny was forced to flee, but she used the Orphan-Maker in a later attempt, this time to “liberate” Franklin Richards from the dangerous lifestyle his parents led. Again, she was thwarted, this time by Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, and Captain America (as the Captain.) Another attempt led Nanny and her teams to fight the original X-Factor over the orphaned babies that were rescued from being used in a demonic spell over Manhattan.

Later, Nanny decided that the X-Men needed rescuing from the dangerous life they led, and she tracked them down to their base in Australia. She captured several members, sending them to attack the others. As the battle turned against her, she attempted to flee, and in the process captured Storm. Unfortunately, at this time, Havok unleashed a blast, sending Nanny's ship crashing. Somehow, though, Storm survived, mysteriously transformed into a child, presumably by Nanny. Nanny’s body was never found.

Years later, Nanny returned, determined as ever to rescue mutant children from a society that hates and fears them. She bade the Orphan-Maker to rescue the young St. Croix children (M and Penance) by killing their father, but he survived thanks only to the Orphan-Maker’s equipment dysfunction. (Nanny lamented that Peter must be “growing up.”) She then tried to have Orphan-Maker save a mutant child who took his school hostage after experiencing years of abuse, but the young mutants of Generation X also arrived, sparking a three-way conflict. The Orphan-Maker ultimately fled after witnessing the young mutant’s parents’ disregard for their own child, who turned out not to be a mutant at all, but merely a troubled, disfigured boy.

Later, when the mutant Ricochet made his appearance, Nanny recognized him as a young mutant that she had “failed” years ago, since the Orphan-Maker only managed to kill his mother. She and the Orphan-Maker hoped to make up for this by killing his father as well, but Ricochet managed to fight them off, which prompted him to reveal his secret identity to his father.