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"Daryl" (whose name is an acronym for "Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform") is created by the government as an experiment in Artificial Intelligence. One of the original scientists decides to free Daryl, but is killed in the process.
Daryl is then picked up by an orphanage. He does not remember who or what he is. As a normal adolescent boy, Daryl begins to exhibit extraordinary talents after he goes to live with foster parents Joyce and Andy Richardson. We also meet the neighbors of the Richardsons: Howie and Ellen Fox and their children Sherie and Turtle. Much to the astonishment of Turtle, Daryl shows many unusual skills, including uncanny abilities at baseball, interaction with ATMs, and in playing video games.
However, just as the Richardsons have begun to accept Daryl, their new-found happiness is shattered when the Government finds and returns him to the facility where he was created. The D.A.R.Y.L. experiment, originally meant and funded by the military to produce a "super-soldier", is considered a failure and the decision is made that he be "terminated". But Dr. Stewart, one of Daryl's designers, decides to free Daryl so he can return to the Richardson family. Unfortunately, one of his colleague, Dr. Lamb, (who earlier posed as Daryl's biological mother) alerts the authorities. In the course of his escape, Daryl gets to demonstrate his driving skills. Alas, the friendly scientist is shot but his dying words assure Daryl that he is indeed a real person. Continuing his escape,
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