In the midst of a forest in the Digital World, there was a Control Spire. Where? The Digidestined didn't know.
As a result, they'd split up into groups, spreading out to try and get a more exact location
"Why'd I have to get stuck with you, TV?" Davis groaned, for the twenty-fifth time, meaning that logically he'd have to actually get the name right or start repeating them.
"For the last time, we drew straws. It was your idea, because you were always complaining that when we split up the groups weren't fair!" TK shot back.
"What? No I wasn't, I was saying splitting up was kind of dumb 'cos every time we do it we all get ambushed and horrible things happen!"
"That was KARI!"
"Well, I agreed with her..." Davis quickly backtracked.
"I agreed with her too!" Veemon added.
"Yeah, 'cos Gatomon agreed with Kari..." Patamon clarified.
"She also agreed that was the only way we'd ever find this spire in time if we all split up." TK then cut back in.
"Uh, well... Whatever, TB! Let's just find this dumb Spire, get rid of it, then next time we can make sure I'm with Kari!"
"You're assuming we'll split up again..." TK sighed.
To much surprise, the forest was harmless. They emerged from it to find a strange looking mansion with a clock tower at the end of a greenhouse.
"...Well, that suspiciously control spire shaped clock tower looks like a good place to look." Patamon noted.
"This could be over faster than we thought. I mean, there's not even any Digimon around!" Davis happily noted.
"...It's some sort of trap." TK sighed.
"You should be more optimistic, TK, not all doom and gloom, like how you said splitting up would have got us all ambushed."
"...That was Kari, and you agreed with her. Are we seriously going to have this argument again?"
"No, we're going into the mansion! Come on, Veemon!"
And with that, the pair ran off.
"...Or we could try the greenhouse door and get to the clock tower faster." Patamon sighed.
"Yeah, let's just do that."
The door was unlocked, and they entered the glass structure. It was naturally damp and warm, but oddly, only vines and large leaves seemed to grow.
"Why'd anyone need a greenhouse just for vines?" Patamon pondered.
"It's not like we haven't seen crazier stuff when it comes to the Digital World, is it?"
"Eh, fair point, TK. Still, these are some weird looking vines. Looks like they've got rubber sap..." Patamon prodded one vine.
It then moved.
"Uh oh. TK, I think they're..."
He was cut off, however, by the vines wrapping around him at lightning speed. He barely had a chance to cry out before he was fully encased in a binding of plants.
"Patamon!" TK cried out, rushing over to try and tug the vines off. However, the other vines were not happy at this.
More shot towards him, grabbing his wrists and ankles, pulling him away even as the wrapped up Patamon was taken into the maw of a waiting group of leaves, sealing over him like a fly trap.
"Great, plants that capture us! I should have known!" TK groaned.
And then a vine began spewing a yellow sap over his wrists and ankles.
"...What the..."
"Ha! I knew you were... Darn, another empty room."
"Davis, is jumping into every room and thinking there's gonna be bad guys there really so smart? I mean, you are pretty much jumping right into an ambush if there is one..."
"Yeah, but they won't expect that! We'd have the element of surprise!"
"Surprised Digimon are prone to attacking you..."
"Doesn't matter, we'd win. Still, this place is pretty empty. I guess we should head for that greenhouse. And where'd TN and Patamon go?"
"Eh, probably waiting outside. We can go out the greenhouse door and tell them to come in."
They went to the greenhouse, just in time to find the vines holding TK in the air as they began to wrap his whole body.
"Davis, Veemon, get out! It's a trap!" TK shouted, as his struggles made one vine spray at random into the air.
"No way, I'm not letting vines eat you!" Davis countered.
"They're not eating me, they're covering me in some sort of sap, I don't know why. Get the others to help!"
By now, the vines were all around TK, leaking sap over the portions fully wrapped. Other vines were covering his lower legs, and apart from above his shoulders, all that was visible of the blond Digidestined was trapped in green vines or yellow goo.
"Come on, Veemon, let's cut him out of that!"
"Sure thing, Davis! WHOA!"
Veemon's reply was cut off by a number of vines grabbing him, and swiftly sending him to share Patamon's fate.
"Davis, look out!" TK warned, but it was too late.
Vines wrapped around his wrists and ankles, and though his attempts to shake them off almost managed it, instead the vines just covered his right leg and wrist in blue sap.
"Uh, this isn't good..." Davis realised, as the vines began to pull at him.
"You idio-" TK began to say, only for the sap to spread over his mouth.
Davis could only struggle and watch as the coating went over TK entirely, and the struggles from the other victim ceased while the vines totally wrapped him, drops of the latex-like yellow sap leaking from between the vines.
"Aha, I see my vines have snared two twerps already!" A voice cackled.
"...Should have figured it'd be you." Davis sighed, even as vines began to draw his arms and legs together to mummify him like TK had been.
"Indeed, I, the Digimon Emperor, have succeeded in my most ingenious plan to date!" He cackled as he walked into the greenhouse, holding two small control pads.
The vines around Davis halted for the moment, simply holding him up to watch.
"...Weird latex spitting vines? Wow, you've had some terrible plans in the past but I wouldn't call this one your best..."
"Silence, worm! Allow me to show you the truth. First, your pest Digimon!"
The cocoons of leaves shifted to let Davis see them. They opened up, to reveal the two Digimon now wore Dark Rings, putting them under the Emperor's control.
"...So what? We've freed Digimon before, and Dark Rings are too weak to control our Digimon for long! They'll turn against you any minute, Ken!"
"Oh, I think not... Look at your friend..."
Encased within the vines, TK was no longer able to struggle physically. Covered in latex-sap, he could only feel the strange and sticky cold sensation of it over his whole body. Cut off from seeing, hearing, unable to speak, all he could do was feel Feel his urge to resist, and feel himself fail to manage to budge even an inch.
And he could feel the latex-like goo covering him getting tighter and tighter. Compressing him? No. He realised that he could feel the latex merging with him. Parts of him became cold, felt almost fluid. He couldn't even scream out, muffled by the vines and latex, mouth held shut.
He tried to struggle, tried to resist, but it pressed inwards. Skin became latex, muscles became latex, his skeleton, organs, and then even his mind, all soon were converted. Now his whole body was latex. All he could feel was latex. And all he could think was an urge to scream, to try and struggle free from what he'd become.
But the latex-goo he'd become to the core refused to obey his commands. It would, however, obey the commands of another...
The vines around TK unwrapped, leaving the shape of a human wrapped head to toe in latex. He stood there, like he was at attention. TK's hat seemed to be gone, likely absorbed by the coating.
"This is more than just a covering. It's fully absorbed your friend! It's a reversible process, and all he was remains in there... because otherwise, he'd be useless. You see, it's very easy for me to turn him back, but I won't. Because this way I control him, and I control his Digimon..."
Patamon then flew towards TK, landing on his head, and beginning to sink in as the latex reached up to draw him downwards.
"You see, I converted the Digimon to the same material as him. It's a sort of smart goo, but despite that, goo isn't much of a thinker. In fact, TK in there is aware of things, he just can't control himself. His brain is now latex, and it's trying to make muscles move, not goo. The digimon, however, without the dark rings, they're able to move for some reason. And digivolve too, converting themselves back to normal in the process as the data rewrites..."
"I'm not following..." Davis admitted.
"Gha! The basics are, I control the latex he's become, and I will control you too! He's absorbed Patamon, and now Patamon will be controlled by his latex, which I control, is that simple enough?"
"...Yeah, but you were talking about something totally different."
"Why do I even explain these things?! Anyway, TK now has many powers. I can order him to assume his original form...."
The yellow goo shifted as the Emperor pressed buttons on his pad, and a moment later, a perfectly normal, if vacant-looking, TK stood there.
"...Assume the form of others..."
TK then went yellow again, shifting into first the appearance of Kari, then to Davis, then to the Digimon Emperor himself, before back to yellow goo.
"Or absorb others and convert them into his material. Or indeed, absorb others of his material and spit them back out later."
Patamon then emerged, a yellow blob that soon returned to looking normal, with no sign of the dark ring, but also looking blank-eyed.
"He can even force the other absorbed things to change shape through my commands..."
Patamon then landed and shifted shape into Gatomon, still looking blank-eyed.
"Or even fake digivolve. Not as powerful, and they can only poorly copy the attacks, but still enough to fool twerps like you..."
Gatomon then shifted, growing massively in size to become a Pegasusmon.
"...How does that even work? There's no way that's possible unless he's like a giant balloon..."
"It's my superior programming, you fool! It creates and compresses more material as needed!"
"...Magic, got it."
"It is not magic! Vines, wrap his mouth and silence him while I finish!" The Emperor fumed.
With Davis now silent, he continued.
"And finally, if he absorbs a Digimon, he can assume it's appearance and powers! The latex of these vines has already absorbed a number of Digimon directly, and can now copy their attacks. A little weaker, but not like we need much strength with some Digimon attacks..."
TK's form shifted to that of a Cockatrimon. The vines around Davis began to fully wrap him, converting him into a similar latex form even as the Emperor cackled.
"I'll show you the true power you two now have. You're invincible, immortal, and unstoppable. You'll soon defeat a few of your idiot friends who are coming too close... But they'll be close to you. I'll let you each absorb them, control them for me.... but I'm afraid that TK gets to demonstrate his new powers on these two coming. I can only give commands to two of you at once until I build more pads, but this should do. You two, my Yellow Toy and my Blue Toy, able to control a whole army of little puppets, obeying my commands through you... "
Davis tried to struggle, but lost the fight, and his freedom...
Davis and Veemon both waited outside now, looking blank eyed.
"Davis? Where's TK?" A voice asked.
Tai and Agumon neared. Kari and Gatomon were right behind them.
"Oh, he's around... We found the spire in this clock tower..." Davis said.
"Run! It's an ambush!" He thought fruitlessly.
At this point, the latex form of TK, now the Cockatrimon, appeared.
"A Cockatrimon!" Agumon helpfully noted, right before being blasted and petrified. However, it was quite a slow process, taking a full three seconds to fully petrify the target.
"Davis, let Veemon Digivolve!" Kari shouted, now riding on the back of Nefertimon, having Digivolved Gatomon while Agumon was being petrified.
"...I can't do that." He said, walking over and grabbing Tai's shoulder.
Blue latex goo began to flow.
"What the..." Kari protested, only to cry out as the TK-Cockatrimon blasted her and Nefertimon into a combined statue, taking a full six, slow, seconds.
Davis, helplessly trapped in his converted body, could only watch as the two slowly turned grey, could only watch as Tai struggled fruitlessly. The older human even tried to punch him in the gut, but the latex just absorbed the blow - and his fist. Within moments, Tai had been absorbed, and then spat back out as another latex form, now subordinate to Davis, and obeying whatever commands the Emperor ordered him to follow. TK had by now shifted back to looking like his old self, the Patamon shape having also appeared again.
"Okay, now absorb the Agumon, my new Blue toy! But, Yellow Toy, leave that statue alone. I think it will be a good decoration and monument to my ultimate victory... 'silly twerp girl on flying sphinx-back'!"
The Digmon Emperor cackled. Soon, the six latex blobs could do nothing but think, and they could only think horrified thoughts at what they'd been forced to do... And what they would soon be forced into doing. The six of them merged together to help move Kari and Nefertimon's frozen forms into the concealment of the mansion, not absorbing them, but simply leaving the pair to gather dust while they were sent out to gather the rest of the Digidestined...