Tell Me Something, "Clark"

Superman expected many things upon returning to the Fortress.

He expected the Kalex drones to be flying about.

He expected the zoo to be maintained, the extraterrestrial animals to be happy in the simulated environments.

He expected his medical experiments to be continuing via the Fortress's AI, with successful ones packaged and ready to be sent to Wayne Industries' medical facilities.

All this and more, he expected, and was not surprised by.

What he didn't expect was for someone in unknown full-body armor to be in his chair in front of the main monitor.

The two just stared at each other for a time. He couldn't hear a heartbeat or breathing through the suit. Couldn't see their face in the visor. Their body language showed nothing.

"Who are you?" Superman finally asked, his body tensed in case of confrontation, wondering if he needed to call the League.

The stranger just tilted their head slightly, as though curious.

"What are you doing here?"

They turned the floating chair around, turning back to the monitor, messing with the controls as if they had used them for years.

"What are you doing? How did you get in here? Can you even understand what I'm sayi-"

"<Yes, now shut up, Kal-El.>"

Superman stopped surprised for a moment.

That was Kryptonian.

"Who... are you?" he asked more cautiously.

They looked slightly back at him, before continuing with the monitor controls.

He was about to move towards them, until they spoke.

"Records indicate that 5 local years ago, the menace known as Brainiac-" Superman noticed a lot of disgust in the synthesized voice - " came here to Earth for the purpose of... collecting it."

They seemed to hesitate for a moment, before they continued.

"And that, despite all odds, yourself, along with a collection of native magic, technological, and meta-genetic defenders managed to not only defeat the rogue Coluan, but utterly DESTROY him, something entire galactic armies have failed to do. Is this correct, Kal-El?"

Superman was thrown for a loop, wondering what this stranger could possibly want. Why ask about this? He has the records, even if Superman wanted to know how he had hacked Kryptonian tech so easily.

"Yes, but what ar-"

"And the records also indicate... the retrieval of the shrunken city of Kandor."

Kal paused. Why would they care about Kandor. Unless...

"Yes, they're safe."

"One more thing, Kal-El. Why are they still shrunk?"

Superman froze at the quickly sharpening edge to the stranger's voice. Something was wrong.

"What do you mean?"

The stranger stood up and turned to face him. Their fists were clenched.

"When I first arrived here and learned of that menace's defeat, I tried to understand why you couldn't have unshrunk them by now. So I questioned myself for possible reasons. Perhaps you didn't have the technology to do so. So, using only the technology available here, including tech salvaged from Brainiac's ship, I tried to crack the code, as they say here.

It took me 5 hours.

Then, I thought of this world's population. Perhaps you were focused on finding an appropriate planet to relocate them? So, using only the maps here, I tried to find a planet that would require minimal to no terraforming. Ones that didn't already have a sapient population.

I found 7 under red stars in half an hour, 14 under yellow stars in 2 hours, and 2 under a blue star in ten minutes. I EVEN FOUND ONE UNDER AN ORANGE STAR!!"

Superman stepped back, realizing the person had just gone from standing by the monitor to up to his face.

He hadn't seen them move.

"I've been here for 7 days, trying to come up with some EXCUSE for why they're still here. I looked through your entire data system and was only left with more questions.

You have had time and resources. You have access to a man with deep understanding of shrinking tech. You have THREE GREEN LANTERNS ON CALL!

So tell me, "Clark", why are thousands of our species are still half a millimeter tall?!"