Axel Shivani has always been an ambitious 'mon. The son of a prominent musician and a professional fighter of some repute, he grew up in the wealthy section of Viridian City, never wanting for much of anything. Often left to his own devices growing up his interests were all over the place, changing from one moment to the next. His parents were always happy to indulge him, if he took an interest in cars they bought him a scaled down toy version and when he took an interest in music his father took him to meet other musicians and on a tour of recording studios. Eventually his interests would settle on the career of his mother, formal battling.

He showed a lot of potential and was given the best training his parents could provide. He competed in the junior leagues but very quickly came to the decision that simple battling wasn't enough - he had to make it look good. Even at a young age he was thinking ahead, determined to use the skills he was learning as a stepping stone. He liked the lifestyle into which he was born but found inspiration in it rather than feeling entitled. He wanted to earn that sort of lifestyle for himself rather than have it handed to him, not that he didn't enjoy the benefits of the high life while he had the chance. It was in the junior leagues that his cockiness and acerbic style of fighting would begin to emerge, earning him quite a reputation. All according to plan.

Axel's enrollment at the PCA was a given, and he quickly set about making a name for himself, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad reasons. He quickly met up with one of his enemies from the junior leagues, slugma Leah Fridén, and following some heated exchanges in and out of the arena decided on a mutual truce. He toyed with the idea of forming a team, trying to get her to go along, but she never had much interest and the two remained independents.

Just before his junior year Axel went through his final evolution into a charizard, which he took as a sign to step things up a notch. He began to get even cockier and flashier in battles, determined to separate himself from the pack, and renewed his attempts to get Leah to join him on a team. She finally agreed, and before long the pair had recruited Leah's roommate Xiaoyu and a friend of Axel's, a heatran named Spencer, calling themselves Team Ember.

Axel serves as team leader but mostly in name only. He's determined to make a name for himself and his team and isn't overly concerned about how that happens. He goes with the philosophy that there's no such thing as bad publicity and puts as much emphasis on style as substance. It's not that he's a bad fighter, he's actually quite good, he just has a habit of showing off instead of just getting the job done.