Xavier Institute Villain File.

Powers: Wanda Maximoff was born atop Transia's Wundagore Mountain, earthly prison to the chaos-demon called Chthon. The otherworldly entity imbued the Scarlet Witch with magical abilities, as he one day hoped to use her as a host to aid his escape. If not for the demon's intervention, Wanda simply would have been an energy-wielding mutant like her father, Magneto. Instead, she can channel chaos-magic in a number of useful ways. Chief among these are her probability-altering hex-spheres -- finite pockets of reality-disrupting, psionic force that cause random disturbances in the molecular-level probability fields surrounding their targets. As a result, unlikely phenomena occur. With greater preparation time, Wanda can cast her hex power to garner specific results.

Bova presented the twins to the High Evolutionary, who agreed to find them human foster parents. He chose Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple camped nearby, who had lost their own twins. The Maximoffs accepted the gift and cared for the children as if they were their own. As adolescents, Wanda and Pietro discovered they possessed unusual superhuman abilities. Wanda could cause strange phenomenon to occur simply by waving her hands, and Pietro was able to move faster than the blink of an eye. When Django stole food to feed his starving family, enraged villagers attacked the gypsy camp. Using his phenomenal speed, Pietro took flight with his sister. The circumstances of the youngsters' separation from their family were so traumatic that not until well into adulthood could they remember anything but the barest details of their early existence. For the next few years, Wanda and Pietro wandered central Europe, living off the land.

While visiting a small village, Wanda accidentally caused a house to burst into flame with her then-uncontrollable hex-casting abilities. Superstitious townspeople took up arms against the young mutant, mistaking her for a witch. Despite Pietro's attempts to defend his sister, the siblings soon were overpowered. They were about to be killed when Magneto came to their rescue. The genetic terrorist pressed them into service in his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, costumed them, and rechristened them the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. For months, Wanda and Pietro served their new master out of a sense of obligation -- and for fear of reprisal. As members of the Brotherhood, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver aided Magneto in his terrorist campaigns against humanity and helped him combat the idealistic team of mutant heroes known as the X-Men. Magneto did not realize Wanda and Pietro were his children, nor did they know he was their father.