As he sat at his work bench, Kal-El's mind was quickly processing the data in front of him. The boomtube used by Darkseid and his horde was a very interesting piece of equipment: it appeared to have a sentience to it that sought out power, regardless of the kind. It required an organic life form to siphon energy from in order to live; and in return, it would provide its host the ability transfer matter between two points in the space time continuum. How it did it, Kal-El had not deciphered yet. But he would, in time; after all, he is the son of who was once Krypton's greatest scientist, Jor-El, as well as Krypton's greatest strategist, Lara-El. While he grew up without his parents, Kel-Ex had made certain he knew where he was from and what standards he had to live up to. It was easy enough to learn and increase in intelligence as he grew, especially with the tutelage of Kel-Ex and the data available within the Kryptonian Knowledge Database (KKD). But his ever increasing knowledge outside of what Kel-Ex could provide was of his own making – partly genetics and partly his own desire in knowing and understanding everything he could. He had always been a curious person – from first stepping foot outside of his ship to even now as he explored the known and unknown galaxies of the universe.
The computer system would need more time to create the data that his newly developed algorithm was searching for. In the meantime, there were other things he could do before meeting Bruce this evening. He pushed away from the terminal at his workbench and floated to his sparring room. He had gotten into the habit of recording his power levels daily so that he could better gauge his capabilities and how much control he would really need to garner when he visited places outside of his fortress; one too many times, when he was still relatively young, he had lost control or misjudged his strength and caused some damage.
The lights immediately turned on as he crossed the room's threshold. The architecture within the fortress was literally out of this world – a replica of the fortress his parents had resided in on Krytpon, taken from the memory banks of Kel-Ex and enhanced with even newer technology that he had adapted and created from his father's stored schematics. For lack of a better word, the fortress was impregnable: not only was it secured via biometric scanners and DNA sequencing decoders, his use of telepathy and neurosensory technology assured him that only he could instruct the fortress in any way. The enhanced shell and walls throughout were made of Kryptonian armor that had been enhanced by Nth Metal that he had found in his explorations. So far, he was the only one that could even dent the material, let alone break through it. His incredible mind had also created stealth cloaking devices that were void of any energy signatures – it made anything invisible to not just the eyes, but to any technology and to any adept creature; not even the last Martian J'onn J'onzz, perhaps the strongest telepath in the universe, could find the exact location of the fortress without being permitted to by Kal-El. Yet, as intelligent as Kal-El was, he knew that arrogance was the forbearer of evil and thus never used his intelligence to handicap others or let himself get carried away in his abilities.
"Greetings Master El" said Kel-Ex through the audio system within the fortress. "You're capabilities assessment regimen is active and ready for you." "Thank you Kel-Ex" said Kal-El, moving towards the biometric scanner in the middle of the room. While this was good data for him to have, he wouldn't want it somehow falling into the hands of any enemies and thus had made sure to secure it as best as possible within the fortress. He placed his hand on the smooth slate that rose atop a pillar in the room. His hand was scanned as was the rest of his body; after a second, the room flashed green and holographic representations of weights and various exercise equipment appeared. "Shall we proceed Master El?" inquired Kel-Ex. "Yes, let's begin" replied Kal-El. After a few minutes of various exercises and tests, the results were ready for his review. "It appears that your overall power level has risen 2.78% since the last test, 2 Terran days ago. Initial data suggest that your cells are now storing more solar radiation than you can expand under normal circumstances. Only with tremendous effort or long periods of time without replenishment will your energy reserves be depleted. Based on data to date, it would take nearly 217.63 Terran years without solar radiation to fully deplete yourself of energy, even during the course of your regular activities. Of course, care should be taken as this data is only a statistical culmination of data to date. Any exertion will impact power levels and energy, depending on the type and length of use."
Kal-El nodded his head silently, Kel-Ex picking up on his master's apprehensiveness. Kal-El never wanted to be immortal, nor did he want to be so powerful that he couldn't be stopped. While he has always worked hard to follow in the righteous footsteps of his parents, he has always been afraid of becoming a monster, or of being used by one. "Log the data and encrypt per the standard protocol. Put the system on alert status and let me know of any issues that arise within our guarded sectors. I will be heading to Earth in a few minutes to discuss the latest news with Bruce. Enable all protocols for the fortress" he commanded of Kel-Ex. "Understood Master El" replied the guardian and protector of the last son of Krypton. For over 3000 years, Kel-Ex has watched over his master and while he was just a machine, he had developed a bond with his master that could not be replicated nor destroyed. As a machine, he had no feelings, had no thoughts – all he knew was command and action, logic and numbers. Yet somehow, perhaps because of the altered programming that Jor-El had updated him with before the ship left the Kryptonian atmosphere, he had grown to view the master as a son; as an extension of himself and as someone he would do whatever was required of to keep alive. Kel-Ex knew that he was not quite sentient, but he wasn't just electronic pulses either – he was something in between.
Kal-El floated through his fortress to the exit passing by the many rooms within the fortress. Three thousand years was a long time and like any other being, he had accumulated many things. While most of them were stored for prosperity's sake, some of his rooms were homes to endangered species. A run in with an intergalactic collector many years ago left him with some friendly and not so friendly creatures that had nowhere to go. Being who he was, he couldn't leave them to their own devices if they couldn't care for themselves. Some of the creatures communicated with him and voluntarily followed him to his fortress, knowing nothing was left of their own kind and not sure of how to survive away from home. Others had no way to communicate and all he could do was to provide for them as they were, hoping he would learn about them in time and assist them however he could.
There were also rooms dedicated to the technologies he had found over the millenniums. He was still working on some of them, trying to extrapolate what he could and adapting them for his needs and the needs of those he could help. Some items were simply stored away as they were only weapons of destruction and could not be made to be useful for anything else. Kal-El tried to not focus on how long he has been living, knowing it would only depress him slightly. In over 3000 years, he had yet to find someone to share his life with – not that he wasn't interested in women (be it Terran or not), but he had learned through Kel-Ex and the KKD that Kryptonians were known for finding their significant others through a telepathic connection – almost soulmate in its description. While they could have relationships with any being, true love, or at least a love that would be worthy of commitment, only came along with that internal connection. Never one to be a pessimist, Kal-El kept his head high and his hopes up as he left his fortress and entered the vacuum of space. Besides, there was data to review with Bruce and he wasn't sure he liked what he could make of it so far.