Turn a plugin into a function

I have a rather bizarre question:

Is it possible (and I assume it is), to take a plugin, and recode it somewhere to make it a standard function?

For example, if I wanted to use the wp-odeo plugin, and make into a function that does not require activation, how could I go about this? Other than changing the file paths inside the plugin to reflect the path of where it will now live, do I need to add the filters (if any) in default-filters.php to make it functional?

-I want a new directory, something like this:
root/api

-Rather than having the plugin living here:
wp-content/plugins

The /api/ directory would contain all of the modified plugins as functions, while the /plugins/ would still be the plugins, minus what I am calling in /api/ since I can’t call the same function twice in the same space.

Any ideas?