I was inspired by a scene from the movie Major Payne when I wrote this; it seems like something Rocket would totally do in order to ease a juvenile Gamora's fear of the Boogie Man (especially if it was Peter who told her a scary bedtime story about him).

"Peter, tell me a scary story!" the young Gamora requested.

"Really?" He was taken aback by the seven year old's request. Normally whenever Peter would act as a story-teller to his now juvenile team-mate, the little girl often wanted to hear the Terran recall the stories of his youth (given the fact that they were mostly synopses of movies from the 1980s, it still entertained Gamora and the rest of his crew).

"Are you sure that's the kind of story you want to hear? You might get scared."

"I won't! I'm not a baby; I'm just as brave as you and the rest of the Guardians." Gamora exuded confidence as she proudly stated to the hero.

"Alright then, then how about I tell you about the Boogie Man."

"Boogie Man?"

"Yup. He's a nasty kind of guy too. He likes to scare kids by making noises in the middle of the night if they have been bad. But you don't have to worry, Gamora. You are pretty well-behaved, so you don't have to worry about him coming to you at night. In fact, I recall there was a song about him too."

"Wow. Can you sing it for me?" Gamora was intrigued by Peter's knowledge of this "Boogie Man" and wanted to know more.

After some careful thought, Peter then sang the song about the mysterious entity. He became very animated as he sang the tune, likening his actions to those of a vaudeville performer. Gamora giggled at the sight, enjoying the Terran's performance of the song.

"He doesn't sound so scary!" she said after the man finished.

"That's the spirit!" Peter told her. He noticed it was growing late and it was time for the little girl to go to bed. "It's getting late and it's time for you to get some sleep. You gonna be OK after I told you that scary story?"

"I will. Like you said, the Boogie Man only comes after really bad kids and I'm a good girl."

Peter smiled and then tucked the child into bed. "Good night, Gamora. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

Much later, after everyone had gone to bed, Gamora awoke to the sound of something thumping in her closet. Recalling Peter's tale, surely it wasn't the Boogie Man coming after her...

No! That was a silly idea! He only came after bad children. But the noise did bother the seven year old. Gamora was still getting used to her new living arrangements aboard the Milano and it was common for one to over rationalize the unfamiliar.

"Stop it! You're not weak!" she told herself. It was a mantra that her adoptive father Thanos often drilled into her head whenever the young girl doubted herself.

No matter how much she repeated this phrase, whatever was (or wasn't) in her closet still frightened her. Gamora pulled the covers up to her chin, staring directly at the closet door and holding her breath in fear.

Be brave. Be brave. Be brave.

Suddenly, a creak came forth from under her bed. Gamora gasped and then bolted from her bed. She dashed out of her bedroom and frantically went into the nearest bunk to where her other caretakers slumbered.

Gamora entered Drax's room and found him to be in a deep sleep. She shook him hard, but the brute didn't wake. She then went to Peter's bunk and tried to wake him, but the man was snoring so loudly that Gamora's efforts where for not. Growing increasingly frustrated, Gamora then scurried to the bunk that Rocket and Groot shared, hoping that either the raccoon or the tall tree man could assist her.

Rocket was curled up in his bed, wrapped in his blanket like a cocoon as Groot slept near him. Gamora nudged the tree, to which Groot awoke.

"Mr. Groot, can you wake Rocket up? I know he won't get mad if you do it."

Groot wondered why the seven year old would ask him such a request. The child noticed the tree's perplexed expression.

"I heard noises in my room. I think it's the Boogie Man coming to get me." She explained with a ting of fear in her voice. "Maybe you and Rocket can get rid of him for me."

Groot nodded and poked at the small animal several times. Finally with a disgruntled snort, Rocket woke up.

"BAH! What is it Groot?!" he mumbled, then noticed Gamora was in the room. "What's the matter, kid?"

"The Boogie Man is in my room!" the child exclaimed.

"The Boogie-what?" Rocket was still half asleep and not comprehending what the little girl was saying.

"The Boogie Man! Peter told me about him. He likes to make noises to scare kids like me. Can you get rid of him?"

"Oh, for the love of—" Rocket said in disgust. "I swear, I'm gonna beat the snot outta Pete…" The small critter then went over to his chest of drawers and started to rummage through them. He pulled out a small, round object and a handgun. Both Groot and Gamora pondered what the animal was going to do with the weapons.

"Follow me." Rocket instructed, to which the tree man and the girl did.

Once the three arrived at Gamora's bunk, Rocket ordered them to stand back.

"Are you going to get rid of the Boogie Man, Rocket?" the seven year old asked him.

"Oh, I'll do more than get rid of him…I'm gonna annihilate him." The raccoon grinned wickedly as he chuckled upon pulling the pin off the ball-like object. He rolled it under Gamora's bed just before it let out a muffled explosion.

Gamora yelped in shock and clung to Groot, shutting her eyes and burying her face into him as he watched his friend "be rid" of the imaginative foe. After releasing the flash bomb, Rocket then turned to the closet and opened fired at it. The noise the former bounty hunter was making alerted both Peter and Drax. Leaping out of their beds, the two men rushed to where the noise was coming from.

Peter saw wisps of smoke coming from under the girl's bed and noticed that her closet door was riddled with bullet holes. "What in the hell is going on?!" the thief said.

"I took care of the Boogie Man that was scaring Gamora." Rocket said with a cocky smile on his face as he twirled the gun like a proud marksmen from the Old West.

"Normal people use a flashlight or even a night-light; not a flash bomb or a gun, furball!" Peter spat angrily at the raccoon.

"Well, if someone hadn't told the kid here about you-know-who, then we wouldn't be in this situation now, huh Pete?"

All Peter could do was let out an exasperated sigh. The girl opened her eyes and saw what Rocket had done to chase away the entity that caused her distress.

"Is he really gone?" Gamora wondered in a tiny, unsure voice.

"He's gone all right!" Rocket told her. Gamora beamed and happily ran over to the raccoon and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you!" she cheered as she wrapped her arms around Rocket's body.

"Loaded gun. Loaded gun." Rocket raised his weapon high above his head and away from the child. Peter quickly took the weapon and clicked on the safety switch. Using two fingers, the Terran gingerly exited the room with it, complaining about Rocket's unorthodox methods of parenting.

"If that's all it took to remove this 'Boogie Man', I could have just flipped the bed over and ambushed the closet. There was no need to use such methods friend Rocket demonstrated just now." Drax told Groot, to which the tree man sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

It was unanimously decided by the aliens that after tonight Peter wasn't allowed to tell scary stories to the little girl, though this didn't stop Peter and Rocket from bickering at one another over the incident.