Outsiders: Tick Tock

{{DC Database:Storyline Template
 * Title                  = Tick Tock
 * Image                  = Outsiders 0004.jpg
 * OfficialName           = Tick Tock
 * Aliases                =


 * Universe               = New Earth
 * Locations              =


 * Heroes                 = Batman, The Outsiders
 * Villains               = Fuse
 * Others                 =


 * Titles                 = Outsiders
 * Collected              =
 * Creators               = Peter Tomasi; Will Conrad
 * First                  = Outsiders Vol 3 #26
 * Last                   = Outsiders Vol 3 #27


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 * Speaker                =
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 * HistoryText            = Tick Tock is an Outsiders storyline written by Peter Tomasi with illustrations by Will Conrad. It is published in the third Outsiders series, although it has never been collected in a reprinted edition. The story takes place in the middle of The Insiders, between the main crossover and the epilogue. This is followed by Crisis Intervention with Judd Winick returning as the regular writer.

Synopsis
Black Lightning and Metamorpho grow alarmed when corpses start showing up connected to a case they closed when Batman lead the Outsiders. They enlist Arsenal to help them track down an old enemy, but decide to keep their mission secret from Batman. It's explained that in their early days they fought a villain named Fuse who turned his victims into living uranium bombs. Before he could sell this ability as a weapon, they tracked Fuse to his lab. Fuse was violently subdued and imprisoned in a secret government facility, where he can't telepathically activate the bombs. The four remaining people he experimented on were released by Black Lightning and Metamorpho, despite the fact that they were living weapons. It's revealed that one of Fuse's patients named Deborah is systematically murdering the others. Katana approaches Arsenal, Black Lightning, and Metamorpho while they are viewing Fuse in his comatose state. Katana attempts to execute Fuse but they stop her. Deborah finds and kills the last of Fuse's patients with the intention to then kill herself. The Outsiders capture her and explain that they could've used many resources to help the patients. Deborah insists that she couldn't risk the comatose Fuse using his limited mental power to detonate them. Deborah is allowed to die on her own terms in a bomb testing site. The four Outsiders visit Gotham to explain what happened to Batman, but Batman has already figured it out. Later, Katana returns to Fuse and kills him in his bed.


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 * Notes                  =
 * This is Tomasi's first work on the Outsiders. He would later become their regular writer in 2009 beginning with The Deep.
 * The Teen Titans series did a similar two-issue fill-in arc titled Legacy at the same time. Both stories take a break from the regular creative team to use entirely different writers and illustrators.
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