OutA_hi=OutA.highbyte 'Splits into hibyte
OutA_lo=OutA.lowbyte 'And into low byte of the word var
is a simple assignment operation not an alias

OutA=$FFFE 'Initial value for word var
OutA.12=0
OutA.15=0
OutA_hi=OutA.highbyte 'Splits into hibyte
OutA_lo=OutA.lowbyte 'And into low byte of the word var
would fix it (get the order correct)