Axel

* Default
* Sunne
* Mega

Axel is a major protagonist of Nightfall, introduced in Volume 2.

## Appearance

Axel is a Shiny Rigon; very well the only Shiny of his kind due to their endangered status. He bears a long scar on his chest, typically hidden by the armor he dons.

His armor covers his head, chest, legs, and partially his wings. The armor is removable and is mostly silver with blue-gray accent colors on his leg and shoulder guards. Two blue crystals are present on his forehead and chest, the latter of which holds Axel’s Sunne Orb within.

### Sunne Forme

Axel becomes primarily white with several features of a Solgaleo. The blue accent color in his armor is replaced with a striking orange, and the secondary section of his shoulder guard is yellow. The arrowhead on his tail is yellow towards the middle, with a black sphere in the center.

There’s a black pattern on his stomach, and four yellow spikes protrude from the armor on his head. The inside of his ears are orange and the metal tips are a yellow-orange fade. Axel’s claws are also yellow and his feet have a black pattern.

The membranes of Axel’s wings are a brilliant blue and glitter with stars, as if his wings are a window into space. His sclera and pupils are bright blue and his irises are white. If using Sunsteel Strike or its Z-Move variant, the third eye of Solgaleo manifests within the crystal on Axel’s forehead.

## Personality

In the beginning, Axel was very childish and presented strong levity, not understanding the severity of certain situations. He was quite rash, putting himself in places he couldn’t get out of on his own. This was mostly shown when Axel begged to be on the Light Team, despite his age and lack of skills.

Once Axel was accepted to fight against Infinity, he gradually became more level-headed, blending in with the rest of the team. He could still get ahead of himself occasionally, but it was much less prominent than before. The Dragon himself explained that being in the center of tragedy and death “really set him straight”, and allowed him to understand the seriousness of reality.

He found it symbolic when he was assigned to mentor Cinder when he first joined. Cinder was a lot like Axel, though the Rigon was ashamed of his past personality; he wanted to make sure the Cinderace wasn’t “delusional” like he was back then, so he made great efforts to correct the teen's behaviour.

## History

### Pre-Nightfall

As a Dravian and in most of his Dragenile years, Axel resided in an unknown Pokémon town located on a cliff overlooking a lake. He was a nameless Pokémon of mysterious origins. His endangered species never allowed anyone to know what he was. Axel no longer remembers much of his town, but he regards it as the calm before the storm.

Over a long amount of time, once he was a Dragenile, the Shiny encountered a Rigon. Though this Pokémon was a different color, Axel rarely felt afraid when with him. He was quick to befriend the fellow Dragon and would always visit him at night.

Axel never questioned why Shuryo would only come at dusk, but the reason was soon answered for him. Shuryo had revealed the true nature of his occasional arrivals, as the team he belonged to was malicious. They were raiding villages nearby, taking over the vicinity and forcing the residents to come to Gilded City.

Of course, the Corrupt Rigon was genuinely good-natured, only telling Axel this information to protect him. He planned to sneak Axel out of the village on the night of the attack. But however, it didn’t go accordingly. Shuryo was caught aiding the young Dragon, ensuing an exhausting and terrifying chase.

As they tried to flee, Shuryo turned back to attempt warding off those he betrayed, but was easily countered and his plan backfired. Axel didn’t go back, believing his friend was killed. He continued forwards as a dark shadow followed, but never had the time to see who the silhouette belonged to.

### Story intersect

The Dragenile spent a few days within the surrounding woods in hiding. He prayed that those monsters wouldn’t find him, but a strange-colored Corviknight proved otherwise when dawn approached. The bird pursued Axel and eventually caught up to him, latching on to the orange Pokémon and throwing him into the lake below, leaving him to drown.

Unfortunately for the Raven, Vapor witnessed the attempted murder and tracked down the drowning Axel, pulling him to shore at Greenwood Bay. He tried to get answers out of the child, but not even Axel knew who or what he was…

Axel was invited to stay at Nightfall, where he got his name after being inspired by Vapor’s Flareon cousin. Lance arrived shortly after, where his illusion of kindness heavily influenced the Dragon-type. He felt betrayed after the Mienshao revealed his true intentions.

Following this event, it wasn’t long before the war began. Glaze rejected Axel from joining the Alliance at first, since he was too young. However, he managed to prove himself to the newly-created group and had his armor crafted by a resident of the neighboring Woodlands village. Since then, his armor’s been updated many times.

### Post-Arcane

Axel resided in Selville after the war ended. He dropped a lot of the serious attitude he’d adopted during Arcane, returning to his more playful personality. However, this was only when he wasn’t working at Selville’s school as a flight instructor. He taught students possessing wings how to fly effectively and the best ways of maneuvering during a fight.

Although all seemed well, the days of brightness would soon dissipate. Axel and Lightning, who were investigating an abandoned shrine in Gilded City, were attacked by Thunder. The hybrid Zoroark was believed to be dead, and the two friends met the same fate as Glaze. Murdered.

Thunder left their bodies to be found by someone else, however long it would take. Unfortunately, this discovery would be from Zera a few days later. And just like Glaze, the news of Axel and Lightning shook every Pokémon in every town. It was a horrible outcome for the heroes.

Zera confronted Thunder a while after their deaths, and with the help of Glaze, Lightning, and Axel’s spirits, the Mythical was able to take down the clone and murder him to avenge his two friends.

## Trivia

* The Dragon was based on Axl from the Mega Man X series. He even used to possess the same scar as Axl, but was removed to further separate the characters. It’s mostly the armor and the name that has resemblance.
* Axel only had one spike behind his ear, but was changed back to the traditional two spikes that Rigon usually have.
* His initial concept used to have mechanisms on his armor to shoot pulses of Dragon energy since he couldn’t do it himself.
* Axel’s Sunne forme has less features of Solgaleo than the usual fusion involving the Orbs. This is due to his armor covering most of his body, therefore the hybrid effects were applied onto the armor and it took most of the features.
* Axel originally had a fusion form with Lance, caused by the Mienshao’s spirit having to possess someone in order to survive without his robotic vessel. This was later changed to Nova using Axel’s body instead, and the fusion concept was given to his Sunne form.
* His armor didn’t originally have blue, and was simply all gray. After the visualization of his Sunne forme, the orange parts of his armor were changed to blue for his default form.